Macon teen in alleged gun incident at Westside High may have taken rifle to campus before
A Macon teen who allegedly took a semi-automatic assault rifle onto the campus of Westside High School in a car at dismissal time Wednesday is also accused of taking a gun onto the campus during a football game last month.
Wednesday’s episode prompted a lockdown and an urgent search for the teen, who according to a spokesperson for Bibb County public schools took off running with the gun and ran into some woods near the Heath Road campus.
The suspect, later identified in Bibb County jail and arrest documents as Zyon Rahquez Hardwick, 17, faces charges that include carrying a weapon on school property and criminal street gang activity.
According to arrest warrants, Hardwick was seen by a campus police officer with a Bushmaster .223 rifle while sitting in a Toyota in the school’s carpool-pickup line at about 2:25 p.m.
The warrants further mention that Hardwick is a “known and admitted” member of the “OTS” street gang.
According to a warrant sworn out last month by a Bibb sheriff’s investigator, Hardwick was identified in an Oct. 7 Instagram photograph standing in the parking lot of Westside High and “holding a rifle that had all the same features as a Colt M4 carbine with a red light.”
“At the time that the photograph was taken it appeared that the accused was attending a Westside football game,” the warrant noted.
The school’s football team hosted West Laurens that night.
The Bibb sheriff’s warrant went on to say that Hardwick “is a known 912 Crip/OTS gang member,” and that he was later “apprehended with the rifle in the photo.”
It was not immediately clear Thursday whether Hardwick was ever jailed in connection with the alleged October incident. He was being held without bond at the Oglethorpe Street lockup.
In the wake of Wednesday’s lockdown, Westside was closed through the end of the week and students were asked to log in to classes virtually.
This story was originally published November 17, 2022 at 11:37 AM.