A Bowie County grand jury indicted a local teen Thursday who is accused of entering an area high school with a stolen firearm after threatening to shoot a former girlfriend on campus.
Ladarious Kashone Cardwell-Forte, 17, allegedly went to a unit of the Lakeridge Apartments in Wake Village, Texas, where the 14-year-old girl lived with her mother at about 8:30 p.m. March 18, according to a probable cause affidavit. The girl's mother told police that Cardwell-Forte was "yelling and cursing" when she answered a knock at the door.
The mother reported that the girl and Cardwell-Forte had been boyfriend and girlfriend for about six weeks when their relationship ended and her daughter started "talking" to a different young man. Cardwell-Forte allegedly demanded that his former girlfriend call the second young man.
Cardwell-Forte, draped in a blanket, allegedly threw the phone to the ground after speaking to his rival. Two young women with Cardwell-Forte were allegedly trying to calm him when he pulled out a pistol and pointed it at the mother and her daughter through the apartment door.
The mother reported that she slammed the door, locked it, ushered her children into a back room and extinguished the lights. When Wake Village police arrived, the mother showed them text messages sent March 16 in which Cardwell-Forte allegedly threatened to kill the girl and her new boyfriend at school.
Liberty-Eylau Independent School District Chief of Police Bart Veal, who was coordinating with local police, had documented text messages from Cardwell-Forte to the girl stating he would "blow her head off at school because he really doesn't care."
Officers searched for Cardwell-Forte that night but were unable to locate him. Early the following morning, officers gathered at Liberty-Eylau High School in search of Cardwell-Forte.
The officers noticed a student arriving late who had just signed in at the front office and stopped him in a hallway as he headed toward classrooms. In the waistband of Cardwell-Forte's pants, officers found a 9 mm handgun that had been reported stolen in Texarkana, Texas.
Cardwell-Forte was indicted Thursday for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, unlawfully carrying a weapon on school property and theft of a firearm. Individuals 17 and older who are accused of criminal conduct are handled in the adult criminal justice system in Texas.
The assault charge is punishable by two to 20 years in prison. Unlawfully carrying a weapon on school property is punishable by two to 10 years in prison. Theft of a firearm is punishable by six months to two years in a state jail.
Cardwell-Forte's bail on each of the weapons charges is set at $10,000. Bail on the assault charge is set at $50,000. Cardwell-Forte is being held in the Bowie County jail.
The case is assigned to 102nd District Judge Jeff Addison.