Police arrested a man armed with three knives and a handgun-shaped BB gun outside Cherokee Charter Academy while students were being dropped off before school Wednesday morning.
The man, dressed all in black, ran away when deputies confronted him, but he surrendered after one of the deputies on a police motorcycle chased him down, said Lt. Jay Baker, spokesman for the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office.
Todd Christopher Grigg, 31, was charged with four counts of possession of a weapon on school grounds, carrying a concealed knife and obstruction of an officer.
The school day continued as normal and it doesn’t appear that Grigg posed an immediate danger, Baker said.
“There’s no evidence at this point that has been discovered by investigators to suggest an attack was planned in any way,” he said.
Students were never in danger and there was no need to lock down the school, said Colleen Reynolds, spokeswoman for Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based Charter Schools USA, which manages Cherokee Charter Academy.
“The administration places the school on lockdown when they believe there’s a direct threat to children and in this case, they didn’t believe there was a direct threat to children,” she said. “It all happened so quickly that it wasn’t an issue anymore.”
According to Baker, two off-duty deputies directing traffic at the school and a third on-duty deputy grew suspicious of Grigg as he was standing in the parking lot in front of Cherokee Charter Academy, which is located in Canton, about 40 miles north of Atlanta.
As Grigg ran away, the deputy pursuing him saw a knife on his side and the deputy drew his weapon, Baker said. Grigg surrendered without further incident.
Grigg told police that he had been dropped off by a family member whose nephew attends the school and he was waiting Wednesday morning to be picked up by another family member bringing another nephew to school, Baker said.
Grigg said he ran from deputies because he knew he couldn’t be armed in a school zone, Baker said.
Bond won’t be set for Grigg until he appears before a judge later this week.
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