Rick Brundrett, Nathaniel Cary, and Anna Lee

The Greenville News

A student was shot Friday morning in a crowded cafeteria at Southside High School, and two students face charges in the incident, authorities said Friday.

Both students will be charged with unlawful carry of a firearm, disturbing schools and carrying weapons on school property, said Greenville County Sheriff's Lt. James Beaver. One will be charged as a minor.

The second is Braylin D'Andre Scott, 17, according to warrants. He will be charged as an adult, Beaver said.

Scott removed "a firearm that was discharged in the school, causing disruption of school functions," a warrant for disturbing schools states. Another warrant says Scott received the gun from another person while at the school.

Both students were in possession of a pistol and gathered at a table inside the cafeteria when the gun accidentally discharged from the minor shooting victim's backpack, Beaver said. A third student, who has not been charged, picked up the gun and turned it over to authorities, Beaver said. Just one shot was fired, he said.

“We don’t know quite the background on why they decided to bring a weapon into the school,” Beaver said.

He said the Sheriff's Office wasn't aware of any credible threats at the school prior to the incident.

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“We’ve very fortunate that this incident wasn’t something more serious, an attack on the school, that it was an accidental discharge of a firearm,” Beaver said.

The two students would be recommended for expulsion, said Greenville County Schools Supt. Burke Royster.

The incident occurred before school started, said Southside student Claudio Davila-Gonzalez. He said he was seated a few feet from the victim when he heard the shot. The student was initially taken to the school nurse and then taken to the hospital by EMS.

After the shooting, the victim was "conscious and talking, " according to Greenville County Schools spokeswoman Beth Brotherton.

Sgt. Jennings Autrey of the Greenville County Sheriff's Office said deputies got a 911 call about the shooting just after 8:30 a.m.

"Numerous deputies responded and located a victim with at least one gunshot wound," Autrey said.

About 10 a.m., the school district released a statement saying there was no threat to the area. Deputies were sweeping the school, but there was no active search for a suspect, the statement said.

After the gunshot, "everybody started freaking out," Davila-Gonzalez said. "We thought it was like they were playing around, but then he started bleeding for real."

After the shot was fired, "One guy got up and then the other guy got up and he was holding his stomach and I think he was bleeding so the other guy helped him out."

Davila-Gonzalez said he was about seven feet away from the incident at an adjacent table.

Another student, Jasmin Garcia, had just gotten to school and was walking into the cafeteria when she said she heard a gunshot.

Garcia said her classmates started scattering in all directions. Some ran toward the shooter, Garcia said, but she said the principal stopped them and told everyone to go to their classrooms.

“I thought he was just doing it for the attention,” Garcia said, until she saw the gunshot victim pull his shirt up. He was bleeding and holding his stomach, she said.

Michael McDowell, 17, whose mother, Katina Jamison, allowed a Greenville News reporter and photographer to accompany her to the school to pick up her son, said he grew up with the gunshot victim and is friends with him. He said he doesn't understand why the incident happened.

"He was a good kid," McDowell said. "He didn't mean no harm."

McDowell described the student as someone who is "friends with everyone." Asked about the general student reaction after the shooting occurred, McDowell replied, "Shocked," noting, "Everyone is saying it's accidental."

At about 11:15 a.m., sheriff's deputies began allowing parents who had had been waiting in a line of cars on Frontage Road to drive to the school to pick up their children. Parents patiently stood in line to show their identification before being allowed to leave with their children. Officials handed out bottled water.

The entire process took more than 90 minutes but was essential to maintain a accountability of all of the students, Royster said.

Students were evacuated about 8:30 a.m. and herded onto the football field, where police searched every student to make sure no one had any weapons, according to Garcia.

Then parents started getting phone calls or text messages.

Jamison said her son called from the football field and told her that someone was shooting in the school. "He said, 'come pick me up, Mama,'" Jamison said.

"That's the worst thing a parent wants to hear," she said.

Kadejdra Klugh was in a line of cars waiting to get to the school: "My daughter is scared. Help me get my daughter. Why are they holding my kids hostage? They are scared, and they need their mother."

Ariel Keeley, another parent waiting in the line of cars, said she received a text message but didn't recognize the phone number.

"'We need to be picked up,'" Keeley recalled the message as saying, referring to her 15-year-old son, Logan, and his friend. "I freaked out. I called the school, and, of course, no one answered."

Both Southside High and Thomas E. Kerns Elementary were on lockdown following the incident. Blythe Elementary, Grove Elementary and MT Anderson Support Center were advised to go on partial lockdown. Brotherton said the lockdowns have since been lifted.

Thomas E. Kerns administrators chose o stay on partial lockdown and didn't allow students out for recess, Brotherton said.

All Greenville County high schools and middle school have school resource officers, Royster said. Elementary schools are patrolled by officers who rotate between schools, he said. There are no permanent metal detectors in place at the district's schools, but portable handheld wands are used on occasion, usually at sporting events, Royster said.

Southside High School is at 6630 Frontage Road off Interstate 85, between Augusta and White Horse roads in Greenville. The school has 807 students, according to the Greenville schools’ website. The school was awarded the 2015 Greenville County Schools High School Safety Award that focuses on prevention of employee and student injuries.

Southside is home to the district’s International Baccalaureate program.

(Greenville News staff Lauren Petracca contributed to this report.)