A South Carolina sheriff is calling for a hate crime law after his deputies had a hard time charging a 16-year-old, white Catholic school student shown on video making racial slurs and shooting a box he said represented Black people.
The teen, who isn’t being identified because he’s a minor, was charged with threatening a school four days after authorities discovered the threats to shoot people at the Cardinal Newman School in Columbia, Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott told WSPA-TV.
“It’s an absolute shame this state does not have a law against hate crimes,” Lott told the news station. “Our legislators have got to take some action. Look at the turmoil these videos have created in the community.”
South Carolina is one of only four states without official hate crime laws, WSPA reported. The other three are Georgia, Wyoming and Arkansas.
The accused student made two racist videos in May and sent them to other students in a group text, and school officials turned who discovered the videos turned them over to investigators July 13, Lott told the news station.
The sheriff said investigators were disgusted by the videos, which showed the teen saying Black people “are stinky and they just suck.”
He then fired more than two dozen shots into a box that he says represents all Black men, WSPA reported.
Deputies took about 20 guns from the teen’s home after his arrest, Lott told the news station.
