Day of Guns, Threats, Fear At 3 Charlotte Area Schools

CHARLOTTE, NC — Guns and the threats of their use in acts of violence on school grounds crippled the school day for three separate Charlotte area schools Tuesday, including one middle school where a 13-year-old student was charged with bringing a weapon on school grounds. The incidents come two weeks after a 16-year-old was fatally shot by a fellow student at Butler High School in Matthews.

The school day quickly turned into a lockdown at Olympic High School in south Charlotte, after Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police received a tip around 8 a.m. that a weapon was on the school’s campus in the 4300 block of Sandy Porter Road.

“A social media post depicted several subjects and a firearm in a neighborhood near the Olympic High School campus,” CMPD said in a statement.

(For more news like this, find your local Patch here. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app; download the free Patch Android app here.)

The school went into a lockdown while police searched the property, however no weapon or suspects were found. Off campus, however, officers located an identified suspect. After an interview with a CMPD, the 15-year-old male was charged with possession of a handgun by a minor.

The lockdown occurred suddenly and some students took to social media to express their confusion and concern. “[M]y school in a lock down and people telling me it’s a active shooter somebody help us out @cmpd,” one student tweeted.

Two additional suspects were identified, bringing more charges in the Nov. 13 incident. Victor Manuel Campos Romero, 16, was charged with possession of a handgun by a minor. Another 15-year-old male was charged with possession of a handgun on educational property and possession of a handgun by a minor.

Across town, at East Mecklenburg High School in the 6800 block of Monroe Road, school officials received a tip around noon that one of their students had a gun. Officers located the student, who they have identified as 20-year-old Demondrez Dashay Tucker, and found he had a stolen gun. Tucker was charged with carrying a concealed weapon, possession of a firearm on school grounds, and being in possession of a stolen firearm.

Not long after the East Mecklenburg High incident, police were alerted that a 13-year-old brought a taser to Eastway Middle School, located in the 1500 block of Norland Road. That student was charged by police with possession of a weapon on school grounds.

Tuesday’s incidents come as Charlotte school officials continue to grapple with the issue of school security. On Oct. 29, the issue of guns in schools crossed a deadly line when Jatwan Craig Cuffie, 16, pulled out a handgun in the crowded hallway of Butler High School in Matthews shortly after 7 a.m. and fatally shot Bobby McKeithen, 16, with a stolen handgun.

Following the deadly shooting, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Superintendent Clayton Wilcox said schools will likely see security changes in the future.

"We've worked really hard on school security over the last six, seven months after some fo the latest school shooting," Wilcox said. "We're going to review all of our procedures, we're going to review our security plan and perhaps we're going to have to do some things that are a little more aggressive."

Prior to Oct. 29 fatal shooting, at least two loaded handguns had been found in student possession at Charlotte-area high schools within the first two months of the school year that began in late August.

Handguns are prolific in North Carolina, a fact underscored by federal data. In 2016, North Carolina had the 8th highest number of firearm deaths in the U.S., with 1,409 deaths blamed on guns, according to the Center for Disease Control.

Image via Shutterstock