16-year-old student arrested after shooting pellet gun at classmates

GREENVILLE COUNTY, S.C. (WSPA) – A 16-year-old is charged with firing a pellet gun at members of a cross-country team as they practiced near Riverside High.

On Tuesday, Riverside High Principal Darah Huffman said cross-country athletes were practicing at East Riverside Park, just down the road from the high school. Two males were suspected to have used pellet guns to fire at the students from the woods.

“Parents are concerned,” Tim Waller with the Greenville County School District said. “You send your kids to school, and you expect more. You expect better. Dealing with things like this is not part of our core mission. Our core mission as a public school system is to educate.”

The sheriff’s office said one student-athlete was hit but is ok.

Deputies say a 16-year-old Riverside High School Student is charged with assault and battery 2nd degree.

“In light of everything that has been going on here recently it strikes fear into people,” Lt. Ryan Flood, with the Greenville County Sheriff’s Office said. “Although it was an airsoft gun, it didn’t cause serious harm [but] it’s fearful to people whenever they are running, just conducting a practice and they see someone holding a gun. They don’t know if it’s a real gun or not, and then they fact they were struck, it can happen just like that.”

Flood said the sheriff’s office is looking for at least one other person who may have been involved.

The Greenville County Sheriff’s Office is working alongside the Greenville County School District to find out why this happened.

“Why do you do that? Who does that,” Waller said. “The superintendent today was telling me in the last ten years we have spent nearly 100 million dollars in security measures.”

Principal Huffman said the school is working with local law enforcement to make sure that students are safe during practice moving forward.

Investigators with the Greenville County Sheriffs Office said they have not learned a motive behind the shooting.

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