SHEILA A. MATHEWS :::
A Griffin High School student, 17-year-old Jeremy Lecompte, is in police custody after allegedly taking a weapon on school property.
According to Investigator Ryan Bynum, of the Griffin Police Department, Lecompte was taken into custody Thursday after a student reported the incident.
The student initially made a report to a teacher, who reported it to administration.
“One of the assistant principals was notified that a student had a gun, and I was then notified that a student supposedly had a gun in his bookbag,” Bynum said. “He (Lecompte) was separated from all the other students and placed in a classroom by himself.”
Bynum stated the student admitted possessing the weapon.
“He admitted he had something on him that he shouldn’t have. While I was checking him, I found a Daisy airsoft pistol on his person. I immediately removed the airsoft pistol from his person, and he was immediately placed in handcuffs,” Bynum said.
Lecompte has been charged with disrupting a public school – a misdemeanor – and carrying a weapon within a school safety zone – a felony.
The weapon Lecompte is accused of possessing was described as “CO2-powered pellet gun,” which Bynum said meets legal criteria for classification as a weapon.
“It looks real enough. It inflicts bodily harm. A pellet gun can break the skin and put a pellet in somebody,” he said. “It’s a weapon.”