Inset: Anthony Chavis (Marlboro County Detention Center). Background: Marlboro County Detention Center (Google Maps).
A South Carolina father has been arrested after he allegedly ran down a school bus containing 19 students and “forced” it off the road before attempting to break into the retractable door and damaging the back window. Just prior to the incident involving the bus, the father had apparently been informed by school officials that a bus monitor was accused of assaulting his son earlier in the day.
The father, Anthony Chavis, and the bus monitor, Sharona F. Cooper, were both taken into custody and now face felony charges.
Chavis is charged with interfering with operations of a school bus, child endangerment, threatening the life of a public official — here, the school principal — aggravated breach of peace, malicious injury to government property, and disruption of a school by a non-student. Cooper is facing one count of third-degree assault.
According to a news release from the Marlboro County Sheriff’s Office, the ordeal began on May 22 when students on the bus reported to school officials that Cooper “had physically assaulted a student after the student refused to remain seated” in their assigned seat. Authorities said that footage from the bus’ surveillance camera depicted Cooper “utilizing her arm to restrain the student from moving down the aisle of the bus.”
Shortly after that incident, Chavis came to the school to pick up his five children. While there, he allegedly became “verbally abusive” toward administration and law enforcement staff, using “profanity and racial slurs and physical motions” to intimidate the other adults.
Sometime after Chavis picked up his children, the bus departed the school to transport students back home. Authorities say Chavis then “followed the bus and forced the bus off the road,” then used his own car and “blocked its path.” While forcing the bus from the road, authorities said Chavis car and the bus “made contact.”
“As Chavis exited his vehicle, he struck the bus numerous times with his fist; he then attempted to forcibly open the entrance door of the bus to gain entry, which was unsuccessful, causing damage to the door,” the release states. “Then, as the bus was finally able to circumvent Chavis’s car, he threw an object, striking the back glass of the bus and damaging the window. Notably, the bus had 19 children, a bus driver, and the female bus monitor on board, as well as his five kids in his vehicle, during the entirety of the incident.”
Investigators said that just as the alleged assault involving the bus monitor, the incident involving Chavis was also captured by a surveillance camera.
Chavis was denied bond because at the time of the alleged attack he was already out of jail on bond for prior assault charges. Cooper also remained in detention awaiting a bond hearing as of Monday, Myrtle Beach NBC affiliate WMBF reported.
