Two people facing charges after shots fired near Cleveland County elementary school

CLEVELAND COUNTY, N.C. (WBTV) - Shots were fired at a home across campus from a Cleveland County elementary school on Thursday morning.

According to the sheriff’s office, a domestic situation took place on Stony Point Road, across the street from Washington Elementary School.

The school went on lockdown for 45 minutes at 11 a.m. after an employee hit a panic alarm. She told officers she heard what sounded like gunfire before seeing a man running from a home and vehicles across the street.

Joseph Tyler Floyd, who lives at the house where this happened, was charged with shooting into an occupied vehicle.

A damaged SUV could be seen parked in the driveway of the home.

Terry Dean Kee Jr. was charged with communicating threats, possession of marijuana, possession of drug paraphernalia, open container of alcohol.

Both men are being held under $10,000 secured bonds.

Sheriff Alan Norman said he was proud of the quick response by school staff.

“The faculty [and] staff did textbook by hearing shots, notifying the SRO, the SRO going directly to the threat, and the school immediately going on lockdown,” Sheriff Norman told WBTV.

Norman said several parents picked their students up early.

Brittany Brant was one of those parents. She says she was worried after she got an alert about “a major disturbance.”

The Cleveland County School District sent the following to parents:

A major disturbance occurred close by in our community today. As a precautionary effort, we immediately locked down our building until the matter was resolved. As you know, we work closely with local law enforcement to ensure the safety of all students. Our wonderful Sheriff’s Office responded quickly and has been on and around our campus to provide an extra layer of support as they worked through the issue. We could not be more thankful for our Sheriff’s Office and school resource officer. Although this did not directly involve our school, they made sure everyone remained safe and secure.

Brant says she is frustrated she was not notified of the incident until after it was resolved and that they did not tell parents it involved gun shots.

“We [were] halfway there not knowing what was going on,” Brant said. “When we got to school nobody would tell us anything. I actually found the article on WBTV to figure out what was happening.”

Her fourth grade son Jacob said the situation was terrifying.

“My friend Jasmine heard a gun shot when we were in the cafeteria getting our lunch,” he said. “We all started to run to the desk and hide behind it. I thought it was a fire drill because this never happened to me before until today, so I got really scared. Some people started crying.”

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