No credible threat to Sumter County schools, says sheriff’s office

SUMTER COUNTY, S.C. (WIS) - The Sumter County Sheriff’s Office wants to let the public know that a potential threat to Sumter schools is not credible.

Investigators have been investigating some photos that contained firearms with captions that related to threats toward schools.

According to investigators, the photos were shared with the student population at Crestwood High School and then made their rounds to other schools in the county.

Investigators also say the photos were shared with students in other counties throughout the state.

One of the photos was verified as several years old and the other photos had backgrounds that did not match any of the schools in Sumter County.

Sheriff Dennis assures the public that his office acted promptly when the shared photos were first presented to authorities.

He stated, “Moments like these give great concern for the safety of our students. Some of the issues that frustrate cases like this is that students continued to share the same photos in mass text without going to the proper authorities first. Even some family members turned to social media which resulted in posts that cause panic and fear. I encourage that every threat be properly reported to law enforcement and school officials and highly discourage sharing unconfirmed information across social media.”

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