When it rains, it pours

In addition to the filing period moving ahead, the Lee County Jail catching on fire, and some other things I’m working on for tomorrow’s paper, I just got word that a 15-year-old student at Lee County High School was shot today while skipping school.

Capt. David Smith of the Sanford Police Department tells me that the student — who is in stable condition at UNC Hospital in Chapel Hill — initially told police that he had skipped school and was walking down Nash Street when a white SUV drove past him and someone inside fired a shot, hitting him in the chin.

Later, though, the student changed his story and told police that he was with another student, and the two were playing with a gun near the train tracks off Bragg Street when it went off accidentally.

Smith said the student is saying that he accidentally shot himself, but added that there’s one more witness to interview and that the story hasn’t been completely verified.

In any event, Smith said the students probably would be charged with possessing the handgun, which hasn’t been recovered.

Jail Fire – 2:50 p.m.

Fire officials and other emergency responders are working a fire at the Lee County Jail right now.

To my knowledge, nobody was seriously hurt, although a couple of jailers and inmates had to be looked at by EMTs and given oxygen after inhaling smoke.

An inmate told me that another inmate started the fire after getting into an argument with a jailer about food.

“He said he was going to burn the whole damn place up,” Garrett Morris told me, identifying the culprit as Tony Wayne Johnson.

Morris said he and another inmate, Jeremy Thorpe, saw smoke pouring out of an isolation room that Johnson was inside and that the two had to help three jailers out of the area.

More updates as I get them.

Filing Update – 11:45 a.m.

Cameron Sharpe, a probation officer here in Lee County, filed today for the board of education.

Board of education seats are non-partisan. Sharpe is the first-non incumbent to file for that board.