After flashing pistol in USCB dorm dispute, Jasper teen barred from campus
A Ridgeland teen was barred from the University of South Carolina Beaufort campus after he pleaded guilty to pointing his gun at a student during a February dispute inside a dorm room.
Cooper Ellis Bonds, 19, was convicted Aug. 12 of pointing and presenting firearms at a person, which is a felony under state law. On top of his no-trespass order from USCB campus, Bonds received a year of probation and was ordered to take a gun safety class.
Bonds was originally accused of pointing his pistol at three others in the dorm room on the university’s Bluffton campus, but he pleaded guilty to only one count of pointing and presenting as the two other counts were dismissed. Court officials also dismissed a charge related to carrying a gun on school property, according to Beaufort County judicial records.
Weapons of any kind are prohibited at USCB, which has a student population of about 2,000 across its two campuses in Beaufort and Bluffton. Tuesday was the first day of classes for the university’s fall 2025 academic year.
Gun drawn inside a dorm
The incident occurred after Bonds was invited to USCB’s Bluffton campus by a group of friends the night of Feb. 20. As they met him in the parking lot shortly before midnight, two of his friends saw a Smith & Wesson pistol in Bonds’ waistband and asked him to leave it in his car. Bonds refused and entered the dorm with the firearm, the witnesses told officers.
Inside the dorm room, a disagreement about the “skittish” behavior of one student’s emotional support dog escalated into Bonds threatening to shoot the animal, multiple witnesses told police. Bonds then reportedly grabbed his pistol from the kitchen counter, chambered a round and “flagged” the firearm around the room.
In an interview with police Feb. 22, Bonds denied pointing the pistol at any human or dog in the dorm room, saying he “pointed either at the floor or the ceiling,” the report says. He told officers he did not know it was illegal to possess a gun on school property.
Bonds was arrested later that day after agreeing to turn himself in at the Beaufort County police facilities on Duke Street, according to the USCB police incident report.
Court records show Bonds has a pending charge of unlawfully carrying a pistol stemming from the same incident. It was unclear when the charge would be adjudicated.
A Beaufort County public defender who represented Bonds did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday morning.
Bonds was sentenced under South Carolina’s Youthful Offender Act, which allows for more lenient punishment for some young defendants without a prior history of violent crimes. If he violated his court conditions, he could face his full term of five years in prison.
