Trident Technical College employee found leaving campus with guns, hundreds of rounds of ammo By Alan Hovorka Mar 6, 2026 NORTH CHARLESTON — A Trident Technical College employee seen driving erratically after leaving campus has been charged with possessing firearms on school grounds.
North Charleston police arrested Jeffrey Harold O’Dell, 64, after watching him leave the Trident Technical College area and begin to make abrupt, illegal lane changes at about 6:30 p.m., March 4. A judge set bail at $50,000 after his March 4 arrest.
It was not immediately known if he was still detained in the Sheriff Al Cannon Detention Center due to Sheriff Carl Ritchie’s policy of delaying online updates of its inmate listings for days at a time.
O’Dell, police said, struck and drove onto a curb before stopping for officers in an Ashley Phosphate Road parking lot. They observed the Trident employee of about 26 years sweating profusely and fumbling through cards to provide identification.
O’Dell complied with police when ordered out of the vehicle but told officers he had a loaded pistol in the front passenger’s seat under a towel. Police also observed the smell of marijuana, but didn’t note finding any.
The officer went on to discover a stun gun, two knives in a lunch box, extra pistol magazines in the driver door pocket and a Palmetto State Armory AK rifle. Police found 11 magazines for the rifle, totaling about 305 cartridges of 7.62 mm, a larger and heavier round than the 5.56 mm used in AR-15 style rifles.
O’Dell has been placed on leave pending an outcome of the police department’s investigation, the college said in a statement. O’Dell works in the college’s procurement office.
The discovery of the weapons took place on a day when students were on break, according to the statement.
“At no point were employees, students or visitors threatened,” according to the college’s statement.
Trident Technical College Police told investigating officers that all employees had already left campus that day between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. because of a career day event slated for the following morning.
Police arrested O’Dell citing the “totality of the circumstances” and notified the campus and the department’s FBI liaison.
They referenced his “extreme nervousness,” the presence of a high-powered rifle along with other weapons, large quantities of ammunition, two pairs of gloves and the immediacy of a large event planned for campus.
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