Was a gun pulled during Aiken High brawl? Here’s what police say

AIKEN, S.C. (WRDW/WAGT) - There will be more arrests in connection with a brawl that started in the Aiken High cafeteria and spilled outside, authorities said Friday.

Authorities spent the day watching videos and trying to identify the culprits in the brawl that left a student with an arm fracture.

It’s unclear how many students were involved, but officers know it was a lot – certainly more than 10.

Six students have been arrested so far, but authorities say those were only students involved in the outdoor portion of the brawl. The next arrests will apparently be students involved in the indoor portion.

Despite persistent rumors, the Aiken Department of Public Safety says officers have found no evidence of a gun being involved or shots being fired.

“The interviews we’ve done, nobody has told us they saw a gun. We haven’t found a gun. We haven’t found anybody that tells us, ‘I’ve seen a gun,’” Aiken Department of Public Safety Capt. Marty Sawyer said.

Authorities did say a knife was found after Thursday’s brawl, but they don’t it was used.

“Nobody was stabbed. Nobody was cut,” Sawyer said. “We don’t know if it was involved in a fight or somebody just threw it now.”

Two photos sent to News 12 show what looks like a jackknife on the floor. They were sent by different people and from different angles, and it’s unknown whether it’s the same knife police say they found.

SEE THE VIDEO FROM THE SCENE:

The brawl was reported at 12:30 p.m. Thursday, and the Aiken Department of Public Safety sent a large contingent of officers who were backed up by the Aiken County Sheriff’s Office.

“You never know what it’s like when you got to after calling for backup, especially where you got 1,200 kids in school,” Aiken Department of Public Safety Capt. Marty Sawyer said.

“So it’s kind of you’re on pins and needles until you get there and finally get things under control,” he said. “Very emotional sometimes.”

Authorities say one full-time school resource officer is assigned to the campus, and that officer likely helped save a lot of people.

“If the school resource officer would not have been at that school yesterday, it’d been a lot worse,” Sawyer said Friday.

“We would love to have multiple SROs at both of our high schools in the city right now,” Sawyer said. “With the manpower, it’s just not feasible.”

School resource officers go through special training that deals specifically with schools and how to handle incidents like Thursday’s. It includes two weeks of training specifically for dealing with school situations and large-scale events like football games.

The officers go through additional training throughout the year. The training includes drills at various schools and active-shooter training.

Sawyer explained the priorities for officers when something like this happens.

“Safety for everybody. Get people, get the situation under control as quickly as possible,” he said. “Treat people that they’re wounded and, you know, we’ll investigate it and all that later. You know, there’s stuff you can do later on, but safety, safety, safety is our first priority.”

Sawyer said he understands that when rumors are flying and parents can’t get in touch with their kids, it’s easy to panic. Many parents showed up at the school Thursday trying to check on their kids, but they couldn’t get in.

“As a parent, I understand what they are thinking and want to get their kid out of there and all that. But really and truly, that creates more of a problem for us when parents start showing up,” he said.

“I know parents are concerned, but we feel like they’re safe in the schools, in the city of Aiken.”

He did have a word of advice when it comes to rumors like the one about a gun.

“Don’t pay attention to social media,” he said. “If it doesn’t come from a legitimate source like public safety or school district, don’t pay attention to it.”

Copyright 2023 WRDW/WAGT. All rights reserved.