Except translation, this story has not been edited by achinews staff and is published from a syndicated feed.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – A 15-year-old boy who was among those accused of opening fire during the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl rally has been sentenced to a state juvenile facility.
“That’s not who I am,” the teenager, referred to as RG in court documents, said at Thursday’s hearing. He described himself as a good kid before he became involved with a group of peers linked to the Feb. 14 shooting, The Kansas City Star reported.
A local radio show host was killed, 25 were injured and 69 others suffered other injuries, such as broken bones and dislocated joints, as they fled, Kansas City police detective Grant Spiking testified.
Jackson County prosecutors have claimed that the shooting was initiated during an argument between two groups. Lyndell Mays, one of the three men facing charges of murder in the death of Lisa Lopez Galvan, is accused of being the first person to open fire.
After that, RG started shooting at Mays and hit another person in his own group, Dominic Miller, who is also charged with murder, Spiking said.
“You made some bad choices, but that doesn’t make you a bad person, it doesn’t make you a bad kid,” Jackson County Family Court Administrative Judge Jennifer Phillips said during a similar case to a sentencing hearing in the adult court.
A commitment in a state Department of Juvenile Services facility typically lasts 9 to 12 months, said a deputy juvenile officer with Jackson County Circuit Court.
Earlier this month, Phillips accepted the youth’s admission that he committed the charge of unlawful use of a weapon by intentionally discharging or firing a firearm at a person.
The Jackson County Juvenile Officer’s office, which oversees juvenile cases, dismissed a second charge, armed criminal action, and agreed not to go through the certification process that could see his case sent to adult court.
Jon Bailey, the teenager’s attorney, asked that he be released on an intensive supervision program and house arrest with a condition not to use social media.
“Our house is not a home without him,” the teenager’s mother told Phillips.
But an attorney representing the juvenile office argued that time in the juvenile facility would help separate him from any negative peer influences.
Two other youths have been charged in the shooting. Phillips ruled last month that one of them will not face prosecution as an adult, and the other was remanded in custody on firearms charges that do not rise to the level of being tried as an adult.
(Except translation, this story has not been edited by achinews staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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