Grandmother arrested after Cumberland student found with gun on campus

A Cumberland County grandmother was arrested Tuesday and is facing charges in connection with a handgun that was found on the campus of Long Hill Elementary School last week and taken there by her grandson, authorities said.

Posted 7:13 p.m. Oct 23, 2018 — Updated 8:24 p.m. Oct 23, 2018

Alfred Charles

, online managing editor

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. — A Cumberland County grandmother was arrested Tuesday and is facing charges in connection with a handgun that was found on the campus of Long Hill Elementary School last week and taken there by her grandson, authorities said.

Terran Hepburn, 57, of Fayetteville, was taken to the Cumberland County Detention Center and held under a $1,500 bond, the Cumberland sheriff's office said in a written statement. She has been charged with a misdemeanor charge of storage of firearm to protect minors, according to the statement.

Investigators said Hepburn failed to place the weapon in a place where it could not be accessed by the minor.

On Oct. 18, a fifth-grade student at Long Hill Elementary School was found with a loaded, black 308 semi-automatic handgun in his backpack by school administrators, who said the student had apparently been carrying the weapon for a week.

The 11-year-old said a 10-year-old classmate ordered him to bring the gun to school, Superintendent Marvin Connelly told WRAL News last week.

Sheriff Ennis Wright said last week that the safety on the gun was off.

"That could have turned tragic, even for the kid that was toting that weapon and the kids around in that school," Wright said.

The 11-year-old's father is a concealed carry instructor and should have done a better job securing the weapon inside his home, the sheriff told WRAL News last week.

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