Report: Teen had two knives during Carolina Forest SRO attack
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Police report says teen had two knives during...
The Horry County police report obtained by News13 says that the teen, later identified as 16-year-old Trevor Varinecz, had two knives while in the officer's school office.Published: October 19, 2009
Updated: October 20, 2009
The teen who police say stabbed a school resource officer at Carolina Forest High School Friday morning had two knives during the attack, according to a police report.
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Click here to view the police report.
Click here to read the Horry County School Board’s statement.
The Horry County police report obtained by News13 says that the teen, later identified as 16-year-old Trevor Varinecz, had two knives while in the officer’s school office. It says when emergency personnel arrived, several people were trying to help the resource officer, Marcus Rhodes. The report says the officer had “several puncture marks on the back of his uniform shirt.“
The report says Rhodes was able to disarm one knife from the student, but he still had another one in his possession. Following that statement, the report says, “the victim had to shoot the suspect several times.“
Both Varinecz and Rhodes were transported to Conway Medical Center shortly after 9 a.m., where Varinecz later died. Rhodes was treated for his wounds and released Friday afternoon.
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There is a lot of talk about tasers. The SRO at the school I work at does not have a taser, only a gun. I think if I was being attacked, I would take whatever means necessary to survive.
I knew this officer from when he was the SRO at my daughter’s middle school in NMB several years back. He is an upstanding man who really cared about the students at the school. There is no doubt in my mind that he only did what he needed to do to survive. My thoughts and prayers are with him and his family. I know he will struggle over this situation.
Darknight, like everyone else here, I was not in the room. But I do have a theory (not I said theory, not fact) as to why there were so many shots fired. Only one of those shots was a mortal wound, the one to the chest. Could it be that Officer Rhodes made every effort to disable his assailant WITHOUT killing him? personally for me that seems like the most likely explaination.
Thank You PEN15!, Very well said for me as well!
I guess we could go round and round about this. The point is the taser is not issued to be used in a deadly force encounter. In this situation, if the reports are correct, the officer used the amount of force necessary to stop the threat. As for the 5 shots, you shoot until the threat is no longer a threat.
The “original intention” of issue and usage of tasers was to be used at the ‘deadly force’ level of the force continuum as an alternative to actually taking the life of an individual. It was supposed to be an alternative to preserve life in a situation where prior to being issued the taser you had no alternative but to pull the trigger on a firearm.
Unfortunately, many law enforcement agencies have lost sight of that and now declare the taser along the same point of the force continuum as chemical agents such as pepper spray.
Now, I am not saying this was a ‘bad shoot’. Under the circumstances, the officer met every requirement under Federal, State, and Local law to respond with deadly force to preserve his life while under an attack from an armed assailant. What I am saying, is this was a situation where the use of a taser would have been appropriate to preserve the life of a member of the citizenry.
Now I will say I have not read the local department’s policy regarding their use of force or use of taser. But judging by most other jurisdictions policies that have been updated in recent years, I am fairly certain that the local LEOs tasers have been downgraded to the level of chemical agents and are not considered appropriate to use in a deadly force situation.
I repeat: I am NOT saying the officer was wrong. It is more of an indictment against the law enforcement community’s twisted self-serving abandonment of the initial idea of the taser. Now days it is used in a situation where a simple hard grasp could subdue the suspect rather than as an alternative to a deadly shot as it was intended to be.
Has anyone commenting here ever actually been STABBED? 
DarkKnight I appreciate your military service, however you are absolutely wrong about the use of the taser. No where is it taught to use a taser against a deadly weapon attack. You can not state your OPINIONS as facts. “... this is a text book case of when the use of a taser rather than the service pistol was appropriate.“ No where in the state of SC is this taught. You are welcome to your opinion, but 3 tours in Iraq does not qualify you as an expert in law enforcement.
There is a slight difference between the military fighting an enemy combatant in the field, and a law enforcement officer patrolling the citizenry.
Like I said, this is a text book case of when the use of a taser rather than the service pistol was appropriate. And I would still like to see and explanation of why there were so many shots fired.
Well, Darkknight, let me say this about that! I find your response to an attack very strange. [for a military man]. Must have missed the class where the Airborne taught “take em alive” at grave risk to your self. The ones i did attend stressed Patton’s code. It goes like this: It is not the object of combat to die for your country. The object is to make the other SOB die for HIS. You miss that one?
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