A teenager was arrested after allegedly threatening and hitting another minor with a gun while recording a video that had amassed more than 63,000 views on social media since it was posted Sunday.
Sheriff Eddie Hawkins said the teenager was arrested the same day after parents who saw the video online brought it to his attention. He was charged with misdemeanor simple assault and issued a delinquent charge for being a minor in possession of a weapon.
The video depicts the white teenage male threatening a Black teenage male with a handgun. Throughout the video, the suspect points the gun at the victim, accusing him of talking to “his girl,” while using racial slurs and forcing him to perform jumping jacks at gunpoint. The suspect appears to hit the victim on the head with the barrel of the gun before ordering him to run home.
Hawkins said the suspect was taken to the Lowndes County Juvenile Detention Center. The case will be handled in youth court, where a judge will determine whether to hold the suspect in a juvenile facility or release him to his parents. A closed trial will also be scheduled, he said.
Although the suspect currently faces only a misdemeanor charge, Hawkins said felony charges could follow, stemming both from this incident and previous ones.
“If the court adjudicates the juvenile, then there could be some felony charges that would be presented to a grand jury at a later date, but we don’t know what’s going to happen there,” Hawkins said.
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