YOUNGSTOWN — On the same day that Youngstown police found three firearms in a book bag belonging to a Cardinal Mooney High School student, police found themselves wondering if something similar was afoot while making a gun arrest of another young man in a car.

Dante Thompkins Miller, 18, of Youngstown, who returns to court today, is charged with three counts of illegal conveyance or possession of a deadly weapon in a school safety zone after a concerned citizen reported at 10:23 a.m. Feb. 23 that Thompkins Miller had three guns at Mooney. Officers quickly responded.

Thompkins Miller’s preliminary hearing is at 9:45 a.m. in Youngstown Municipal Court. If convicted, Thompkins Miller could get up to three years in prison.

But at 2:23 p.m. that same day, officers observed a silver 2006 Chevrolet Cobalt traveling east on Chaney Circle near Belle Vista Avenue on the West Side. The vehicle committed an alleged traffic violation and officers made a traffic stop.

The driver was asked to provide his driver’s license and other information. Officers detected the smell of marijuana, so the four individuals in the car were ordered out to conduct a search. Officers found a torn plastic bag containing marijuana “flakes” near the front-seat passenger.

Also found was a Marvel book bag on the rear passenger seat between the two passengers. Inside the backpack were papers with the name Ke’ Twan L. Boudrey on them and a handgun with ammunition in an “extended magazine.”

Boudrey, 18, of Youngstown, who was in the back seat, told police the bookbag was his, and he was charged with improper handling of a firearm in a motor vehicle. The driver of the car was issued a citation for an improper turn signal. Boudrey was taken to the Mahoning County jail.

Officers asked Boudrey if he had the firearm in his possession in school that day at East High School and Boudrey said he had the bookbag, but the gun was not inside of it at school.

When Boudrey was asked if he made any stops between the traffic stop and when he left East High School, Boudrey said no.

An officer then asked the driver if he allowed Boudrey to leave the gun inside his car during school, and the driver said “he did not know about any firearm.”

Boudrey also was arraigned last week and returns today for a preliminary hearing on his charge, a fourth-degree felony punishable by up to 18 months in prison.

Capt. Brad Blackburn, head of the patrol division, said he has not talked to the officers involved in the call and does not know whether they were aware of the earlier incident at Mooney. He said it was probably just the type of followup officers would carry out in the situation that unfolded.