Greenville County Sheriff Hobart Lewis stated that the shooter was discovered hiding under a deck at a house near Tanglewood Middle School in Greenville approximately an hour after the shooting. He was still armed.
The charges against the boy include murder, possession at school of a firearm and possessing a weapon by a minor. Lewis stated that he was taken to Columbia's juvenile prison.
He was hiding. "He was a young man. He probably didn't know the consequences of what just happened," said the sheriff at a news conference. He didn't know what to do except to leave school, which I don't believe he did.
Although the boys were friends, the sheriff stated that investigators are still investigating the circumstances surrounding the shooting at a school front and how the gun was obtained.
The shooting left no other injuries.
The boy's family released a statement claiming that he was Jamari Bonaparte Jackson. They asked for privacy during their grief.
"We are all deeply affected by today's tragic events. "We love Jamari very much," Jamari's family stated in a statement released today by Fighting Injustice Together.
Lewis stated that a school police officer called the school to report the shooting. He requested emergency support at 12:30 p.m., and over 200 deputies and other law enforcement officers were sent to the school.
WYFF-TV captured helicopter footage of dozens of officers standing outside the school, with over two dozen buses lined up. Some students were slowly getting on the buses.
All students, teachers included, were taken to a nearby parish.
Burke Royster, Greenville County Schools Superintendent, said that he has no idea how the gun got to school and caused the death of a student.
Royster stated, "I don't know if anyone will truly understand the thoughts of that young man who committed this reckless act after a thorough and thorough law enforcement investigation."
