Officer at Midlands school activates Taser, incident under review

The Sumter Police Department is reviewing an incident in which a school resource officer activated a Taser at a middle school.

According to a release from the department, at dismissal time on Tuesday, an officer pointed a Taser upward to make an “arching” sound, in hopes of getting the attention of students so they wouldn’t run into oncoming traffic. The device did not make contact with anyone and there were no injuries.

The Item newspaper of Sumter reports that the incident happened at Bates Middle School. The officer in question has been with the department for five years. The police department is assigning a different officer to the school.

The school district has notified parents and guardians of the incident.

Chris Trainor

The State

Chris Trainor is a retail reporter for The State and has been working for newspapers in South Carolina for more than 21 years, including previous stops at the (Greenwood) Index-Journal and the (Columbia) Free Times. He is the winner of a host of South Carolina Press Association awards, including honors in column writing, government beat reporting, profile writing, food writing, business beat reporting, election coverage, social media and more.