We learned today that 16-year-old Bryan Oliver who shot one of his classmates with a shotgun and narrowly missed another last Thursday at Taft Union High School in Kern Co., Calif. before staffers talked him into putting the rifle down, will be charged as an adult.
The young Mr. Oliver is facing two counts of premeditated attempted murder and three counts of assault with a firearm resulting from his actions last Thursday according to Oregon Live.
“It was just the factors of the case,” said Mark Pafford, the chief deputy district attorney, about the decision to charge Oliver as an adult.
“The severity of the actions, the injuries to the victim, that a firearm was used. Those are the things we considered.”
Being charged as an adult, Oliver is facing a sentence of 32 years to life for per each charge of premeditated attempted murder with a firearm.
According to a witness who knows the shooter, Oliver was seeking retribution for being bullied at school. The boy was reportedly teased by classmates for having red hair and being socially awkward.
“They called him a ‘ginger’ and said gingers don’t have souls,” said Morgan Alldredge, a friend of both Oliver and one of the targets, who was in the classroom during the shooting.
“I was his friend. I don’t know why people picked on him. He was misunderstood.”
Other neighbors also report Oliver as being “relentlessly bullied” and being ostracized at school.
Police investigating the case are not commenting on the rumor that Bryan Oliver allegedly maintained a hit list of students he wanted to harm.
For more on the story, see the video as CNN's Kyung Lah talks to Taft Union High School students and parents about what they knew of the alleged shooter.
See our original report on the incident here: Calif. high school student armed with shotgun shoots classmate
Also see:
- 12-year-old found guilty in shooting death of his abusive neo-Nazi father (Photos)
- Ron Paul’s grandson charged with assaulting flight attendant (Photos)
- Women strip for the pope in protest of Vatican opposition to gay marriage (Video)
- Michael Lohan agrees to pay back child support for illegitimate child (Video)
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