Beaufort County 16-year-old charged Friday. Police say he brought gun to football game
After a week of lockdowns at three Beaufort County schools and a student allegedly bringing a gun to school, another teenager was charged with having a gun at a high school football game on Friday, according to a Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office alert.
While patrolling the Whale Branch Early College High School concession stand at the school’s stadium around 10 p.m. Friday, police found a teenager who had dropped a gun. The teen, a 16-year-old boy Whale Branch Early College High School student from Grays Hill, tried to hide the gun before dropping it again, police said in the alert. While police were focused on safely unloading the firearm, the teen ran away.
Police were able to get the boy’s name and address from school officials and were at his house by 10:20 p.m. The boy was detained and charged with bringing a weapon onto school property.
The district “regularly” reminds students that weapons are not allowed on campus and that they should report “unsafe behavior,” said school district spokesperson Candace Bruder.
“We also encouraged parents to have these discussion with their children,” she said.
Last week, Whale Branch Middle School, Beaufort High School and Battery Creek High School went into lockdowns for various threats. The threat at Whale Branch Middle School on Oct. 6 was deemed “non-credible” by police, according to previous reporting.
Beaufort High School went into lockdown twice, on Oct. 5 and 6. Beaufort High’s first lockdown was part of a statewide hoax in which a caller claimed there was an active shooter on campus that had already shot several people. The hoax affected 22 other schools across South Carolina and is under investigation by the FBI. On Oct. 6, the school was on lockdown again after someone reported that a student “who is known to have guns outside of school” may have brought one in that day. No weapons were found.
Similar accusations were made against a Battery Creek High School student on Oct. 6. In that instance, police found evidence that while the student did not have a gun with him on Oct. 6 he did allegedly have a weapon on school property on Oct. 5. That student, a 14-year-old, was charged with bringing a weapon on school property and taken to the Department of Juvenile Justice in Columbia.
This story was originally published October 10, 2022 at 2:34 PM.
