Student kills peer at South Carolina middle school: cops

A 12-year-old pupil was shot and killed Thursday by one other 12-year-old pupil inside their South Carolina center college, authorities mentioned.

The shooter was discovered hiding below a deck at a house not removed from Tanglewood Center Faculty in Greenville about an hour after the capturing and was nonetheless armed, Greenville County Sheriff Hobart Lewis mentioned.

The boy is charged with homicide, possession of a firearm at a college and possession of a weapon by somebody below 18. He was taken to a juvenile jail in Columbia, Lewis mentioned.

“He was hiding. He’s a younger man, most likely didn’t perceive the implications of what had simply occurred,” the sheriff mentioned at a information convention. “I don’t assume he knew what to do, actually, apart from to depart the college.”

The boys knew one another, however the sheriff mentioned investigators are nonetheless making an attempt to determine what led to the capturing in a entrance a part of the college and the way the boy received the gun.

Nobody else was injured within the capturing.

The household of the boy killed launched an announcement saying he was Jamari Cortez Bonaparte Jackson and asking individuals to respect their privateness as they grieve.

Legislation enforcement responds to a capturing at Tanglewood Center Faculty in Greenville, S.C., on March 31, 2022.

AP

The boys knew one another, however investigators are attempting to determine what led to the capturing in a entrance a part of Tanglewood Center Faculty.

WYFF Information 4

“We're all devastated by in the present day’s tragedy. We love Jamari dearly,” the household mentioned in an announcement launched by neighborhood justice group Preventing Injustice Collectively.

A police officer on the college referred to as within the capturing and requested emergency backup round 12:30 p.m. and greater than 200 deputies and different regulation enforcement officers rushed to the college, Lewis mentioned.

Helicopter footage from WYFF-TV confirmed dozens of officers strolling round outdoors the college with greater than two dozen buses lined up. Some college students had been slowly boarding the buses.

Everybody on campus, together with academics, was taken to a close-by church.

Greenville County Colleges Superintendent Burke Royster mentioned he doesn’t have any concept how the gun ended up at college and a pupil was killed.

“I’m unsure after a full and thorough regulation enforcement investigation anybody will actually know what was going by means of the thoughts of that younger one who took this rash act,” Royster mentioned.