Burke student charged: Senior enters school grounds with realistic-looking air rifle

from the charleston post and courier

Crime scene investigator Sgt. Steve Hood carries evidence from President Street a block from Burke High School on Tuesday after Charleston police apprehended a suspect who was reported to have a weapon.
BY NOAH HAGLUND

A Burke High School student wearing fatigues and an ammo vest walked onto campus wielding a military-style air rifle Tuesday, intent on holding his JROTC class hostage and hoping to be killed by a police officer.

Just inside the Sumter Street gate, he pointed the realistic-looking air rifle at an officer, then fled when she drew her service weapon on him, Charleston police said.

"It looked real," spokesman Charles Francis said of the rifle. "Extremely real."

The student surrendered about a block away after emerging from a hiding spot behind a house. Nobody was hurt.

Near the same house at 312 President St., police said they found an abandoned arsenal of sorts: an

ammunition vest with a 9 mm magazine, a M-4-style air rifle and toy handgun with their orange muzzles painted black, a plastic flashlight attached to the rifle, a black rain coat, a throwing knife with a 4.5-inch blade, a cell phone and a plastic holster.

The Burke incident occurred as the nation continues to reel from a series of fatal school shootings over the last month. On Monday, an attack at an Amish school in Pennsylvania left five schoolgirls dead and six others critically wounded. Last week, a gunman took a group of girls hostage at a Colorado school, eventually killing one and himself as police moved in. A principal in Wisconsin and a teacher in Vermont also were gunned down at schools during the past month.

Locally, the Burke incident wasn't the only case this week involving guns and schools in Charleston County. A 20-year-old man allegedly pulled out a firearm at Lincoln High School in McClellanville on Tuesday afternoon during an altercation among students. On Monday, a man brought a gun to the private St. Paul's Academy in Hollywood, threatening the principal and another school worker, authorities said.

Charleston County schools Superintendent Maria Goodloe-Johnson said she didn't know why people are targeting schools but that it does raise her concerns.

"I don't know what's going on," she said. "It's just really strange."

In the past few weeks, Goodloe-Johnson said she's made sure that staff members have double-checked district security procedures and plans.

On Tuesday, police say a classroom put-down may have prompted 19-year-old Tyrell Joseph Glover to leave the Burke campus without permission about 11:30 a.m.

Glover, a senior who recently had completed basic training for the military, appeared to be enraged about an earlier argument in a JROTC classroom, Francis said. He had been showing other students his military identification card when one of them took it and threw it on the ground. He left and called a student's cell phone, saying he would come back and shoot people, police said.

The student who received the threatening call told an instructor who, in turn, told the school resource officer, a report states.

Police were on alert when they spotted Glover inside a school gate. After he fled, officers converged on President Street before he gave up. Glover, of King Street, is charged with threats and intimidation, disturbing school, having a weapon on school property and pointing and presenting a firearm, police said. He was taken for a psychological evaluation.

According to a police report, Glover made a statement at the hospital that his intentions were to hold the class hostage and to be killed by a police officer.

School District spokesman Jerry Adams said the school was locked down for about a half hour. Glover has been recommended for expulsion, Adams said.

The incident at Burke came on the second day on the job for new Charleston Police Chief Greg Mullen. The block of President Street where the drama ended also was the site of a shooting Sept. 18 that left a 31-year-old man dead in an ambush-style attack. Several residents were upset about the recent events.

"As long as I've been on council, I don't remember ever seeing anything in this area," said City Councilman Wendell Gilliard, who represents the neighborhood and arrived on the scene.

Dread gave way to a mixture of relief and anger when bystanders learned the guns weren't real.

"He could've got killed," said Rosalee Jones, who lives on the other side of Burke on Fishburne Street.

Gilliard commended the police for resolving the situation and said he hopes to see more officers patrolling the streets soon.

"We always want to chastise the officers for doing their jobs," he said, "and that's so wrong."

In incidents at other local schools, two men have been arrested on felony charges, said Capt. John Clark, a spokesman for the Charleston County Sheriff's Office.

Peter Cook, 42, of Hollywood is charged with threatening a public official, possession of a firearm, possession of cocaine base and possession of cocaine within a half mile of a school in the St. Paul's Academy incident, Clark said. Cook was being held Tuesday at the Charleston County Detention Center on $1 million bail.

Trevor Gibbs, 20, who is not a student, is charged with disturbing school and pointing a firearm in the incident at Lincoln High, Clark said. He was scheduled for a bond hearing today.

Diette Courrege and Nadine Parks contributed to this report.

Reach Noah Haglund at [email protected].