One man is in custody for multiple charges... Including child endangerment. Law enforcement told 2 News that the firearms were in an unlocked room near a play area for children, where a family of an employee at the museum was living. How officers found the guns is almost as disturbing though.
Carson City Deputies responded to calls from local businesses about 2 children, the youngest being only 2 years old, who were unaccompanied by any adults, a call Carson City Sheriff Ken Furlong says is frequent around the children's museum. But once they arrived on scene, deputies learned something unexpected....
"The children, while they were speaking with the officers, said they were living in the museum, and the officers were pretty stunned about it."
Deputies then went to the Children's Museum of Northern Nevada, where they found and arrested 42 year old Wilbert Calhoun, the museums janitor, for child endangerment.
Officers then made their way to the museum to search and found the family living out of multiple storage rooms in the building.
Sheriff Furlong tells us that when searching a maintenance room near a play area in the museum, officers also found multiple guns, silencers, magazines, and some low-level drugs.
Although Nevada allows silencers, they are still highly regulated by the federal government under the national firearms act. And anyone who buys a silencer must retain proof of registration. On top of child endangerment, Calhoun is now being charged with 3 different gun charges, including possession of a short barrel gun, all of which were in rooms easily accessible and in an unlocked room turned living quarters for himself and at least 4 children.
Calhoun was then taken into custody and transported to the Carson City Detention Facility on multiple weapons charges and child abuse/neglect.
"Parents trust certain organizations like a children's museum to take good care of their children when a services is being provided or when they have an event inside the children's museum, and when that belief or sense of safety and security is violated, it can be very very problematic for our community," said Furlong.
We did reach out to the Children's Museum, who sent me this statement reading in part “…we are shocked and saddened that this happened on our watch, and we are working hard to make sure that nothing like this will ever happen again. We are looking into the best path to reopen in a way that not only assures the safety of all of our visitors, but that we as a community can be proud of as well….”
There is a sign on the front door saying they will open back up on Monday, and we'll be sure to keep you updated on any future actions by the Children's Museum.
