Charges filed after 6-year-old brings a loaded gun to SC elementary school

A South Carolina man faces child neglect charges after, police say, he left a gun accessible to a 6-year-old boy who brought it to school in his backpack. 

Aiken Department of Public Safety officers arrested Marquise Ervin on Wednesday, reports WFXG. Ervin is charged with two counts of unlawful neglect of a child, according to Aiken County online court records. 

Ervin is accused of leaving a loaded handgun in the reach of two children, one of whom put the gun in his backpack and took it on the bus to Chukker Creek Elementary School, said Capt. Maryann Burgess of Aiken Public Safety, according to The Augusta Chronicle. 

The district said in a statement that a 6-year-old first grade student had the gun in his backpack, and that several other children on the bus alerted the bus driver, WRDW reported at the time. 

Ervin was released from jail on $15,000 surety bond, court records show.