Man charged after gun, knife found in kindergartner’s backpack

INDIAN LAND, S.C. — Deputies in Lancaster County learned how a kindergartner ended up with a loaded pistol and knife at school. The weapons were found inside his backpack on Wednesday.

A man told investigators he took the gun and the knife on a hike and forgot to take them out of the child’s backpack before the five-year-old went to Harrisburg Elementary School in Indian Land.

Alexander Storm Savarese, 29, was charged Thursday afternoon with unlawful conduct toward a child.

Savarese “ … used the child’s book bag Tuesday to go on a hike ... placed his knife and his pistol into the bookbag for the hike, forgot about them, and failed to remove them from the bookbag before the child took it to school Wednesday morning," a statement from detectives read.

Some parents hope the charge sends a strong message to all parents.

“I’m glad that the kids were safe,” said parent Tunisia Milner. “I’m glad that the teachers were safe.”

Milner said there must be communication.

“You don’t know what those children are bringing to your children, so education and just having those conversations early on, is very important, because things like this happen,” she said.

Some said people must be more responsible.

“First of all, if we’re going to have weapons, guns in our home, we should always have gun safety, OK. We should always have them locked up, then they should be completely secured,” said parent Victoria Byrne.

Byrne hopes this is a learning lesson.

“We’re also talking about the welfare of everyone at that school,” she said. “The gun could have been dropped. The safety could have gone off, so definitely, if we are going to do consequences, maybe it will prevent another one happening.”

Elementary students who bring a weapon to school. get suspended for 10 days

It’s also recommended that the student get expelled.

For privacy reasons, the school didn’t say what would happen to the child.

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