Berkeley sheriff: Incident near Sangaree schools was just man shooting BB gun

The Berkeley County Sheriff’s Office says an incident that led to Sangaree schools being locked down this morning arose from a man shooting a BB gun in a nearby community and that students were never in danger.

As a standard procedure, sheriff’s spokesman Dan Moon said deputies contacted the school when the man was spotted. Nobody was hurt, and no vehicles were struck by bullets, he said.

Reports to the contrary were exaggerated, he said.

Deputies happened to be in the area to help another agency serve an arrest warrant, Moon said, when they saw the man firing the BB gun in a mobile home park near the school.

It wasn’t immediately known whether the man had anything to do with that warrant, he added, or whether he was aiming the gun at people.

“It’s no big deal,” Moon said. “The man was taken into custody as a precaution.”

Berkeley County School District spokeswoman Susan Haire said Sangaree Elementary, Sangaree Intermediate and Sangaree Middle were placed on a brief lockdown while the shooting was investigated.

“Teachers keep on teaching, students keep on learning, but we do go on lockdown as a precaution,” Haire said.

The lockdown was lifted at 8:30 a.m.