Crime & Public Safety
Beaufort Co. middle schooler charged with threatening to kill peer with knife, report says
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A H.E. McCracken Middle School student allegedly threatened to kill another student Tuesday after bringing two knives to school, according to a Bluffton Police Department report.
The suspect was charged with having a weapon on school property and third degree assault and battery, the report said.
Here’s how things unfolded, according to the report. A student told administrators he was on a school bus when he approached by a peer who handed him a phone and told him to run, the report said. He was then stopped by the suspect who said, “Give me my phone back or I will kill you.” He then flashed a knife, the report said. The threatened student told a bus driver about the incident. The driver then informed the principal that “there was talk about weapons” on the bus, the report said.
The principal found a pocket knife with a blade about 3 inches long stuffed into a bus seat, which the suspect admitted putting there, the report said. The student’s belongings were searched and a 6-inch-long knife was found, the report said. The suspect told administrators he had both knives at school, the report said.
The knives were placed in the Bluffton Police’s evident to be destroyed, the report said.
Having a knife with a blade longer than 2 inches on school property is a “level four” violation, which can result in up to 10 days out-of-school suspension and recommendation for expulsion or assignment to an alternative school, the Beaufort County School District’s Code of Student Conduct says.
The suspect will be charged in Family Court, the report said.
Lana Ferguson has covered crime, police, and other news for The Island Packet & Beaufort Gazette since June 2018. Before coming to the Lowcountry, she worked for publications in her home state of Virginia and graduated from the University of Mississippi, where she was editor of the college newspaper.
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