A Florence gang member will spend nearly two years in federal prisons after stealing a firearm and bringing it to West Florence High School, according to a press release from U.S. Attorney W. Walter Wilkins.
U.S. District Judge Bryan Harwell sentenced 19-year-old Calvin Melford Sweeney to 21 months in prison.
Florence County sheriff’s deputies were called to the school April 30, 2008, after school officials received a report that a student had a gun in his car. The .22-caliber rifle was located in Sweeney’s car, and Sweeney later admitted he’d stolen the gun in a burglary days earlier.
Authorities said Sweeney is a known affiliate of the 900 Boyz and Hoffmeyer Boys, violent street gangs in Florence.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Rose Mary Parham of the Florence office prosecuted the case, which also was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, as part of Project CeaseFire, an initiative of the United States Attorneys Office that seeks to aggressively prosecute gun-related crimes.
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