School Shooter Gets Maximum Sentence

Thu., Sept. 30, 1999

From Staff Reports

A Notus teenager has received the maximum sentence as a juvenile for firing two shotgun blasts at his school in April.

Shawn Cooper, 16, was sentenced Tuesday by Magistrate Thomas Ryan, who cited the seriousness of the crime in ordering Cooper held at a state juvenile facility for an indeterminate period not to exceed his 21st birthday.

Defense attorney Michael Crawford agreed with Ryan adopting the recommendation of prosecutors because Cooper “is not quite ready to be out in the community.”

On April 16, Cooper, then 15, fired two rounds from a 12-gauge shotgun at the Notus Junior-Senior High School just before classes were to begin. The blasts narrowly missed several students, and no one was injured.

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School Shooter Gets Maximum Sentence

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