Teen who made racist videos threatens school shooting, but SC law sets no clear punishment

COLUMBIA — A 16-year-old expelled from a private Catholic school for videos showing him repeatedly shooting at a box he said represented black men faces prosecution under a one-year-old law that lacks a penalty.

The white male, who’s not being identified due to his age, was allowed to withdraw from Cardinal Newman on July 15 and was arrested two days later after a third video surfaced in which he threatened to “shoot up the school,” the principal and law enforcement authorities explained this week to parents angry they weren’t notified earlier.

But the law creating the crime of “student threats,” his charge, set no actual punishment.

Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott told reporters Thursday it’s a misdemeanor punishable by up to 10 years in prison. That’s nowhere in state law. Instead, that’s the interpretation of the state Commission on Prosecution Coordination, a state agency that supports South Carolina’s prosecutors, which noted in its advisory “the Legislature did not specify a penalty.”

Read more: https://www.postandcourier.com/politics/teen-who-made-racist-videos-threatens-school-shooting-but-sc/article_aec1676c-b9f3-11e9-931c-bbbb6c6a7496.html