Toddler in stolen car pulls pellet gun on police

North Charleston police officers approached a stolen, abandoned SUV Wednesday to find its only occupant holding what looked like a pistol.

Even more startling: the person holding the gun was a 3-year-old boy.

He handed the gun to officers, saying "Gun. Gun," according to a police report.

Police quickly took the gun and determined it was, in fact, a pellet gun.

The boy had been left alone in a sport utility vehicle by a man who bailed out after an officer tried to stop it.

Moments earlier, an officer was patrolling near Remount and Yeamans Hall roads when his automated license plate recognition system alerted him to a stolen vehicle nearby. The officer found the vehicle, a red Montero Sport with Utah tags, near Remount Road and Read Street, the report said.

Before the officer could stop the SUV, the driver turned into a driveway, jumped out and ran away.

As the officer approached the abandoned SUV, the child, who was sitting in the front seat, reached into the center console and pulled out the pellet gun. After taking the gun from the boy, police called for assistance from the S.C. Department of Social Services.

A search for the driver was unsuccessful, but he had called the child's mother after he ran away and told her where the boy was, the report said.

The boy's mother came to the scene and told police the driver was not the boy's father but that she was carrying his child. She told them the driver was at a house on Clifton Street in the Ferndale subdivision.

Officers went to that house and arrested the driver. They found a gram of marijuana in his pocket, the report said.

Terrence Myers, 23, of Poplin Avenue, North Charleston, was charged with possession of a stolen vehicle, unlawful conduct toward a child and second-offense possession of marijuana.

According to a criminal background check with the State Law Enforcement Division, Myers has a record that goes back to 2006, when he was convicted of strong-arm robbery. He sentenced under the Youthful Offender Act and has been sent back to prison several times due to parole revocations.

In June, he was charged with resisting arrest and drug possession, according to SLED. Those charges have not been adjudicated.

At a bond hearing Thursday, Charleston County Magistrate Linda Lombard set bail at $25,000 on the charges. Myers was being held in the Cannon Detention Center.

After police consulted with DSS, the boy was released to the custody of his mother.