A teenager was found with a loaded gun in his pants at Friday night’s Hephzibah High School football game against Laney, but an arrest was never announced to the media by Richmond County school officials.
When 17-year-old Jahkhi Wimbley was found with the Glock on campus, school officials also discovered the young man was wanted on outstanding warrants for allegedly robbing a man of his firearm last month.
In that case, authorities say Wimbley pulled up to the victim July 23 on Jonathan Circle while driving a 2015 Hyundia Elantra. He pointed a gun to the victim’s face and robbed the man of his weapon. Wimbley told the man “you better not tell because I know where you live,” according to an arrest warrant.
While working Friday night’s football game in Hephzibah, a school resource officer found Wimbley with a Glock in his rear pocket, a semi-automatic handgun with a live round in the chamber and 10 live rounds in the magazine, the warrant says.
Chief Public Relations Officer Lynthia Ross said Monday that she does not announce arrests to media like Columbia County schools have done this year. She said letters are sent to families. The media must ask about the incidents before receiving the letters.
“Letters were sent to Laney and Hephzibah families,” she said.
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She said the district’s policy is to notify families with children where there are incidents at a school.
“When we receive requests for information from media about school incidents that do not identify students by name (which creates a FERPA violation), we respond with the letter/notice that was sent to our families,” she said. “After our families have been notified, we will include an upload of letters sent to families regarding school incidents to our Open Records Portal.”
She did not indicate how reporters can access the portal.
Columbia County has begun sending notices to all media of criminal incidents that happen at school, forwarding the letters that principals sent home to parents.
Richmond County Trustee Venus Cain said she supports doing the same for schools in her county.
Meanwhile, the victim of the July 23 armed robbery told us this: “Apparently he felt remorse for what he did and he passed the gun down to his brother, and his brother gave it back to me and said he was really sorry. … I told him that since he was giving it back, I won’t press charges and I called 911 back once I received my weapon back and told them I won’t press charges.”
But Wimbley was still booked on the outstanding warrants for armed robbery and weapon possession as well as possession of a weapon on school grounds. He remained in the Richmond County Jail on Monday night without bond.
Greg Rickabaugh is the Jail Report contributor for The Augusta Press. Reach him at greg.rickabaugh@theaugustapress.com
