SARDIS, Miss. – – A group of teens and young children got quite a scare when a truck driver allegedly threatened to snatch a black student off a school bus.
Brandon Grace is accused of making the threat after pulling in front of the bus at a four-way stop. He told Sardis police the student threw something at his truck and cracked the windshield.
Eddie Thomas’s step children and niece were on the bus. They say a student gave Grace the finger, but nothing was thrown. Thomas says Grace stood outside the door of the bus and said the following to the bus driver: “If you can’t control that student I’ll snatch his black a** off the bus.”
Even if something was thrown, Thomas says threatening a student isn’t the way to go.
“That shouldn’t happen. That can’t happen,” Thomas says.
He’s just thankful Grace didn’t make good on his alleged threat.
“If he was that mad to pull a bus over and make that statement he could have been mad enough to go on the bus and actually do bodily harm to one of the kids,” Thomas says.
Investigators say Grace drives for Martin Brother’s Scrap Metal in Sardis. The owner of the shop mostly had no comment on the incident, but did tell us the truck driver was not fired.
A warrant for Grace’s arrest was issued on March 1st, days after the North Panola School District pressed charges.
“There’s so much going on with the schools now and for a grown man to say that to kids, that’s just unacceptable,” Thomas says.
Grace is charged with simple assault attempt by fear. We’re told he’ll likely pay a fine if convicted.
Sardis police say they’re working with the Panola and Tate County Sheriff’s Offices to bring Grace in because he lives out of town.
