Female teacher, ex-student wanted in Florida caught with gun at area motel

Florida officials said Cooney and the 16-year-old were the targets of investigations by several Florida jurisdictions.

Shalimar (Fla.) police Chief John Cash told the Northwest Florida Daily News that Cooney was facing charges in his locality of aiding and interfering with a missing child.

Riverside Deputy Chief Mike Brown said Cooney and the 16-year-old — for whom there were numerous warrants also — were arrested Friday at the Days Inn on Harshman Road.

Brown said an officer on routine patrol spotted the car with Florida plates parked in an out of the way spot in the parking lot.

The officer looked inside the car and found it filled “with so much stuff that it looked like a hoarder,” Brown said. The officer checked the car’s plates, which came back to Cooney. There was a notice to law enforcement stating that Cooney may be with the missing 16-year-old, who was considered armed and dangerous, the deputy chief said.

The two had registered under a false name, but police were able to determine their room. When they came out, police detained them.

Brown said the 16-year-old told police there was a firearm in the room. Police did recover a 9 mm semiautomatic pistol from under a pillow.

The weapon had 12 rounds in its magazine and one in its chamber.

All the two would tell police before asking for a lawyer was that they were on their way to Ann Arbor, Mich.

While at the Riverside police station, Brown said Cooney was not allowed to call her mother in Florida to check on her young daughter.

Cooney remains in the Montgomery County Jail and the 16-year-old remains in the Juvenile Justice Center, awaiting extradition.

Cooney was in her second year of teaching reading at the Okaloosa Academy Charter School, Terri Roberts, chief operating officer for the Rader Group, told the Florida newspaper. The Rader Group oversees the school.

Roberts said Cooney left work early on Tuesday, saying she had been called to pick up her children from school. Cooney did not show up to work Wednesday, and Thursday morning they found a note on her desk that announced her resignation and apologized for quitting so abruptly.

Roberts told the newspaper that the 16-year-old was a former student of the private school.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2290 or dpage @DaytonDailyNews.com.