Investigators with the Washington County Sheriff’s Office have taken Bryant Cady, 18 year old black male, a 17 year old black male, and a 16 year old black female into custody and charged the students with possession of a firearm on school property following the February 18th incident at Vernon High School.

Interviews with numerous students found that the 17 year old black male was seen with the firearm early during the day and no report was made to authorities.

At approximately 2:00 p.m. Cady was seen removing the firearm from the black bag belonging to the 17 year old black male and displaying it in the classroom.

At that time a fellow student sent a text message to her parent notifying them of the incident. The parent in turn notified Washington County Sheriff’s Office who informed the school resource officer and administrative staff and the school was placed on lockdown.

Once the students found out authorities had been notified about the firearm, they placed the firearm back into the black bag and the 16 year old black female student assisted in removing the firearm from school grounds.

All three students were booked into the Washington County Jail.

“We so often read national headlines about school shootings and we cannot afford to take these situations lightly” states Sheriff Haddock.

“It is our job to stop this kind of activity in its tracks and address this head on before it is allowed to become a problem in Washington County.”