Police: Teen said gun jam ‘good thing’

ANDERSON, S.C. — The teenager who shot and killed a child on a South Carolina schoolyard cried and apologized afterward and said it was a good thing his gun jammed before he could shoot more children, a detective testified Monday.

Anderson County Det. Ronald Wood’s testimony Monday came during a hearing to determine whether the teenager, who faces two murder charges in the deaths of his father and an elementary school student, will be tried as a juvenile or an adult.

Defense attorneys spent Monday morning arguing that the teen’s rights were violated because investigators did not expressly tell the boy that he could talk to his mother or an attorney before he confessed.

The teenager was 14 years old in September 2016 when authorities say he shot his 47-year-old father at home and then drove to Townville Elementary School and started shooting at first-graders on a playground. One boy died, and a teacher and another student were wounded.

“Good thing my gun jammed or I would have shot more,” Wood quoted the teenager as saying as he was put in the back of a police vehicle.

Wood told defense attorneys that the boy’s grandfather — who rushed to the school after his grandson called him to say he killed his father — told officers the teen stayed in his room all the time because his parents were drunk and he was being home-schooled because he was being bullied.

Defense attorneys at Monday’s hearing questioned each of the four detectives who testified about whether the teen knew his rights.

Anderson County Sheriff ’s Detective Tracy Hall said the suspect was polite and not extremely emotional, but appeared to understand him as he told him he had the right to speak or not speak about what happened that day.