West Charlotte High School was on lockdown for several hours Tuesday as administrators searched for a gun following a morning melee in the parking lot.

The fight broke out in the bus parking lot at the start of the school day. Administrators said no serious injuries were reported, but four students were arrested for public affray.

Witnesses told officials that a fifth student involved had a gun. The student was charged with possession of a firearm on campus and public affray.

The school was locked down from 7:30 to 11:05 a.m. and a class-by-class search of students was conducted. No gun was found at the school.

School officials didn't release the names of the students involved, but said they will be disciplined. -- Ely Portillo

Regional briefs

Students and parents arriving at Cox Mill High School in Cabarrus County were greeted Tuesday by a dozen members of a right-to-life group, carrying posters protesting abortion.

Representatives from Dallas-based Operation Save America stood outside the school from about 6:30 to 7:30 a.m., some holding large signs that contained graphic abortion photos. Flip Benham, who identified himself as a local organizer of the protest, used a microphone and sound system to preach from the sidewalk in front of the school.

Police officers and sheriff's deputies stood nearby, but no incidents were reported. The group left before students from Cox Mill Elementary School, across the street from the high school, arrived. -- Steve Lyttle

Concord City Council on Monday night appointed John Sweat Jr. to the District 7 seat vacated when council member Randy Grimes resigned.

The seat will be up for election in November 2011.

Sweat works for S&D Coffee and spent 23 years in the Air Force and N.C Air National Guard. He has served on the Concord Historic Preservation and Planning and Zoning commissions.

He is also president of the Autumn Ridge Homeowners Association.

Sweat will be sworn in at the Dec. 10 city council meeting. -- Joe Marusak

North Carolina

An autopsy shows an N.C. man just discharged from a state psychiatric hospital died from a massive overdose of a painkiller given to him by the facility.

The (Raleigh) News & Observer reported Tuesday that 40-year-old Jeffery Scott Swaim died in July of acute Fentanyl poisoning.

The synthetic opiate was the active ingredient in the pain patch Swaim was prescribed at Cherry Hospital in Goldsboro. The newspaper said the drug has been linked to hundreds of overdose deaths nationally and is often abused by those seeking a high.

Doctors at a Wilmington hospital found one of the pain patches in Swaim's mouth.

He was admitted to the psychiatric hospital almost two weeks earlier seeking treatment for alcohol abuse and suicidal thoughts. -- Associated Press

Police digest

A Lenoir woman has been charged in connection with a wreck last month that killed a motorcyclist, police say.

Lenoir police say they charged Kimberly June Prestwood, 39, with misdemeanor death by motor vehicle and failing to yield the right of way. She has a court date of Dec. 17.

According to police reports, Prestwood was driving a 1997 Dodge van about 7:45 p.m. Oct. 22 on Wilkesboro Boulevard, when her van struck a motorcycle driven by Jessica Emily Ormand, 36, of Lenoir.

Ormand was killed in the crash, and the police report indicates that Prestwood turned into the path of Ormand's motorcycle. -- Steve Lyttle

Alexander County

Police are looking for a hit-and-run motorist who they say might have returned to the scene of the collision and tried to make the fatally injured victim more comfortable.

Hank Pittman Jr., 61, a subcontractor working on a cable TV line, died as the result of injuries suffered when he was hit by a vehicle early Tuesday in Alexander County, according to the N.C. Highway Patrol.

Troopers and police looked Tuesday for the vehicle responsible for the collision - a vehicle authorities say suffered left-side damage.

The collision happened sometime between 2 and 2:45 a.m. on Old Mountain Road near Smith Farm Road, south of Taylorsville. Troopers say Pittman contacted his company about 2 a.m., to give an update on his activities. About 45 minutes later, a motorist spotted a man lying in the road.

Pittman was taken to Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, where he died of his injuries a short time later.

Troopers told reporters that they found the victim's work jacket folded under his head - a sign that someone, perhaps the motorist who hit Pittman - was at the scene and tried to provide some help.

The N.C. Highway Patrol said the vehicle involved in the collision suffered damage on the left front side. It also had apparent windshield damage. Anyone with information in the case is asked to call the N.C. Highway Patrol at 828-466-5500. -- Steve Lyttle

South Carolina

A jury has cleared North Charleston police in the 2005 death of an S.C. teen who swallowed crack cocaine.

The Post and Courier of Charleston reported the jury deliberated about four hours Monday before finding police were not at fault in the death of 16-year-old Travone Bell.

Authorities say Bell swallowed the drug when he was stopped for a traffic violation.

Attorney Michele Forsythe represented Bell's parents and said police should have done more to protect their son, who was too young to understand his mistake. -- Associated Press

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