Charges filed against school security guard who allegedly pulled gun on student:
Dolton IL December 11 2018
A school security guard was criminally charged after being accused of threatening to kill a Dolton high school student and putting a gun to the student’s chest in the Academy for Learning parking lot last month, officials said.
The guard, identified in police reports as Bennie T. Scott, was charged Monday with aggravated battery, felony disorderly conduct and violation of concealed carry on school grounds, Dolton Police Chief Robert Collins said.
Collins said other charges may be considered after the guard is indicted.
The guard, whom police reports identified as an employee of Prudential Security, had been prohibited from entering the high school where he worked or any other district facility since the Nov. 28 incident, said Sandra Thomas, executive director of Exceptional Children Have Opportunities, or ECHO, the south suburban special education cooperative that operates the Academy for Learning.
Thomas declined to answer questions about ECHO’s relationship with Prudential, a Michigan-based private security company, or whether the district had any prior issues with Scott or the firm.
Dominic Hamden, general counsel for Prudential, declined to comment on the incident other than saying that the firm was cooperating with the police investigation. It was not immediately clear whether Scott remained an employee of the company.
According to police reports, Scott had been one of multiple school security guards who intervened in a heated argument between three students shortly after they arrived at school that morning.
During an altercation with the student, Scott allegedly placed his hands around the student’s neck and threatened to kill him, according to a police report.
His colleagues told police they had to physically separate Scott from the student, and the guard was told to go outside to cool off, Collins said.
While outside, Scott saw two of the students involved in the earlier incident exit the school’s main entrance and “rushed” toward them, according to the police report.
After coming face-to-face with the student he’d tussled with inside, Scott allegedly pulled a gun from his waistband and pushed it into the student’s chest while taunting him, the report stated.
He fled in a car before responding officers arrived at the scene, the report stated.
According to the police report, one of the other security guards told officers he’d previously told Scott not to bring his personal firearm on school property.
