School security guard warned her son police sought him in shooting case, officials say
A mother who is a school security guard is accused of using a police radio to warn her teen son and his accomplice that deputies were seeking them after they shot into a home, according to the Orangeburg County Sheriff’s Office.
The office on Friday charged 44-year-old Deborah Tucker with obstructing justice, and her 17-year-old son, Isaiah Tucker, with three counts of attempted murder. Mark Harper Jr., 17, was charged in the shooting Tuesday with three counts of attempted murder.
“The more we investigated this case, the uglier it became,” Orangeburg County Sheriff Leroy Ravenell said.
On March 22, the younger Tucker and Harper drove by and shot into a home on the 1100 block of Sheppard Lane, the office said. That’s about four miles from the Orangeburg exit on Interstate 26.
Three people were in the house when it was shot, the office said. At least one bullet went through a window and lodged into a wall. When a deputy arrived, he found bullet holes in the house and shell casings in the road. A resident of the house told deputies that he saw the shooters and identified them as Tucker and Harper, according to arrest warrants.
Orangeburg deputies put out over police radio that they were looking for the younger Tucker and Harper, according to the office. Tucker’s mother, Deborah, through her job as a security guard at an Orangeburg County school had a radio that broadcast police signals. When she heard deputies radio that they were looking for her son and the car he was in, the elder Tucker contacted her son and told him to get off the road, warrants said.
The Orangeburg County School District said the elder Tucker was not an employee of the district.
Deputies jailed the Tuckers and Harper at the Orangeburg-Calhoun Regional Detention Center. A judge gave the elder Tucker a $20,000 bond. She paid and was released from jail, according to court records.
Whether the younger Tucker and Harper were still jail is not listed in public records. A telephone request to the jail about the duo’s status was not responded to. Typically with an attempted murder charge, the suspect is kept in jail and the decision to release is left to a state judge at a later court hearing.
As deputies arrested Harper at his mother’s house, methamphetamine was found in the home, the office said. Deputies charged Harper’s mother, 37-year-old Kimberly Thompson, with drug trafficking. A judge gave her a bond and released her from jail, court records show.
Attempted murder is punishable with up to 30 years in prison. Meth trafficking is punishable with three to 30 years in prison, depending on the quantity of the drug and the offender’s criminal record.
This story was originally published April 2, 2022 at 3:41 PM.