Threats of bombs in schools and students being shot lands teen in custody, SC cops say
A 15-year-old is in custody after several Midlands schools were targeted in threats, the Lexington County Sheriff’s Department said Tuesday.
The threats said bombs would be placed in schools and included plans about shooting students, the sheriff’s department said in a news release.
No injuries were reported.
The Lexington 1 schools named in the threats were White Knoll High School, River Bluff High School and the North Lake Community Learning Center, according to the release.
The threats were issued “electronically,” the sheriff’s department said.
The 15-year-old, whose name is not being made public because of his age, was charged with threatening the use of a destructive device and student threats, according to the release. He’s being held at a South Carolina Department of Juvenile Justice facility, the sheriff’s department said.
“Detectives connected the 15-year-old to the threats by means of electronic evidence and obtained a search warrant to enter his house to secure additional evidence,” Sheriff Jay Koon said in the release. “He confessed to making (the) threats when interviewed by detectives.”
Information about why the teenager made the threats was not available.
“The response to these threats on the part of school administrators and law enforcement is the perfect example of across-the-board coordination,” Koon said. “Thanks to the Lexington Police Department, as two of the locations are in their jurisdiction, everyone stayed safe and each campus remained secure.”
Those are River Bluff High and the North Lake Community Learning Center. Both schools were put on secure, searches of the schools were completed, and no explosives were found, Lexington police said.
There was no word if any weapons or destructive devices were discovered in a search of the 15-year-old’s house.
Classes resumed following the searches, according to police.
The University of South Carolina Police Department sent three K-9 teams to assist Lexington police in the campus searches.
The 15-year-old will appear in Lexington County Family Court at a later date, the sheriff’s department said. There was no word if the teen is a student at one of the schools, or if he is facing any punishment from the district.
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This story was originally published September 20, 2023 at 8:09 AM.
