ISLA VISTA — As if the horror that occurred on the streets of this heavily-populated community immediately adjacent to the UCSB campus exactly one week ago when 22-year-old Santa Barbara City College student Elliot Roger went on a lethal rampage wasn’t sufficient cause for concerns about the safety of everyone, another student has been found to be in possession of enough guns and ammo to replicate Roger’s violence.
According to Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department Public Information Officer Kelly Hoover, in the early afternoon of May 27th deputies responded to a call for service at a student-occupied apartment complex on the same street where Roger’s lethal rampage took place. Deputies arrived to find “a gunshot had come through the wall from a connecting apartment, deflected off a TV stand and lodged into the adjacent wall, narrowly missing the resident inside.” When deputies witnessed the reported damage, they promptly contacted Kevin Tym, a 21-year-old UCSB student who admitted to “playing with his legally owned handgun” when it discharged.
Deputies seized the handgun, a 9mm Glock 17, and determined that it had indeed recently fired the round lodged in his neighbor’s wall. A search of Tym’s apartment immediately ensued, which led to the discovery of an additional 7 firearms and “approximately 1000 rounds of ammunition,” as well as a number of high-capacity assault rifle magazines.
While all the firearms have been reported to have been legally owned and possessed by Tym, the reaction to the discovery of his weapons cache has only further put the UCSB community on high alert, and law enforcement reaction to his accidentally firing a gun while inside his residence was swift, leading to the seizure of all his firearms and ammunition and his summary arrest on charges of negligent discharge of a firearm and possession of high capacity magazines. He was transported to Santa Barbara County Jail with his bail set at $2500 and the prospect of additional charges forthcoming.
Read more:
Los Angeles Times: UCSB student accused of shooting gun through wall in Isla Vista
NY Daily News: Santa Barbara student arrested after accidentally firing gun, just missing Isla Vista neighbor: police
KTLA: UCSB Student Arrested for Firing Gun Inside Isla Vista Apartment
