A teen accused of bringing a gun to an Anthem High School on Monday is a good kid who needs psychiatric help, according to a woman caring for him.
Irene Hart is the grandmother of 18-year-old Luis Barragan's former girlfriend and says she was letting him live with her.
The teen was her granddaughter's longtime boyfriend, and she says he had a difficult family life.
Hart says Barragan was finishing high school online while working three jobs.
Hart says the young man may have felt like he was losing everything when her granddaughter recently broke up with him.
"A lot of times if someone really gets hurt, maybe he feels if she doesn't want him, she can't have anybody," Hart said. "But he's never threatened her at all."
Maricopa County Sheriff's investigators say Barragan showed up at his ex-girlfriend's school, Boulder Creek High School, with a gun and told the girl he was going to take his own life. That triggered a lockdown at the school.
Barragan drove off and later showed up at the ex-girlfriend's house where he was arrested, according to authorities. He was jailed on suspicion of disorderly conduct with a deadly weapon, interfering with an educational institution and other crimes.
The grandmother says she hopes the courts go easy on the teen, and he gets counseling.
"He's just lost," Hart said.
