ELYRIA — A 12-year-old McKinley School student is facing Juvenile Court charges of carrying a concealed weapon after he took a knife to school yesterday, according to a police report.

Police were contacted a little before 10 a.m. after a teacher heard that he had shown the knife to other students.

Police recovered a 3-inch Winchester brand knife.

The student told police he had not told anyone about the knife and had kept it in a folder. He said he brought it to school because he was going to use it to take stickers off his bike.

He admitted, however, that he hid it in some bushes outside the school when he found out other students had told on him.

After being charged, the student was released to his mother.

CLEVELAND — Mitch Talbot couldn’t save the sinking ship this time.

Talbot, the Indians’ resident skid stopper, was off the mark Thursday afternoon at Progres­sive Field, and the home team suffered the consequences in a 9-3 drubbing from Kansas City.

Talbot entered the game with four of his five wins coming after a Cleveland loss, but he wasn’t able to turn the tide this time around, as the losing streak reached four games via a (two-game) sweep-clinching victory from the lowly Royals.

As a result, Kansas City moved up to fourth in the Central Divi­sion, while the Indians returned to last place.

“I just wasn’t throwing strikes pretty much the whole game,” said Talbot, who allowed six runs on eight hits over six innings.

“I let them sit there and wait for the fastball.”

More photos below.

Talbot (5-3, 3.88 ERA) walked three and allowed all of his runs within the first three innings.

It was an ill-located fastball that led to the big blow of the game from Alberto Callaspo, who capped a four-run third inning with a three-run home run that put the Royals in front 6-1.

“It was a fastball over the plate,” Talbot said. “It was a good one to hit. I think I could’ve hit that one.”

Talbot was able to settle in after the third, holding the Royals hitless over his final three innings. “Mitch struggled with his command the first couple innings,” said Cleveland manager Manny Acta. “But he pitched six innings with our bullpen short, and he deserves credit for that.”

“I try to pull something good away from every start,” Talbot said. “That’s what I’m going to take from this one.”

.

Talbot didn’t pitch well, but he wasn’t the only one to blame for the latest loss — not with an offense that has been stuck in low gear all season. Cleveland managed just four hits off starter Luke Hochevar, who entered the game with a 5.86 ERA but was able to pitch his third career complete game. It was the right-hander’s first win since May 4 at Chicago.

The Indians scored once in the first on an RBI single from Travis Hafner, but didn’t cross the plate again until Jhonny Peralta hit a two-run homer in the sixth to pull his team within three runs.

The Royals tacked on three runs in the seventh off relievers Rafael Perez and Hector Ambriz, with Ambriz allowing a two-run homer to Jose Guillen.

The Indians had no answer from there.

“We continue to scuffle offensively,” Acta said. “It’s been a struggle. Our numbers don’t correlate well. We’re in the top three in strikeouts and at the bottom in home runs.

“It’s an offense that is not giving our guys much margin for error.”

The Indians were swept for the fourth time this season and have been swept in consecutive twogame series against Tampa Bay and Kansas City.

Contact Chris Assenheimer at 329-7136 or cassenheimer@chroniclet.com.

Kerstetter

A public safety fair Saturday will be part of the 25th anniversary of the Greater Cleveland Police Officers Memorial Society.

The society, which honors fallen police officers from around Northeast Ohio, will be adding the name of Elyria police Officer James Kerstetter to its memorial during a cere­mony today. Kerstetter was shot and killed March 15 in Elyria while responding to a call.

The public safety fair will be 2 to 6:30 p.m. off of Lakeside Avenue in Cleveland next to the Cleveland Convention Center.

The event, which will be free and open to the public, will include participants from more than 55 law enforcement, emergency medical and other safety agen­cies from around Northeast Ohio, said the fair’s chairman, Gary Houlehan.

The U.S. Secret Service, for instance, will provide child identification kits, and the Ohio State University ROTC Pershing Rifle Team will also perform.