Video shows LeFlore student putting gun to victim’s head after initial shot, detective testifies

By Brendan Kirby

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    MOBILE, Alabama (WALA) — A LeFlore High School student shot a fellow student during a physical altercation at the school in January, pursued him as he was crawling down the hallway and pointed the gun at his head, according to testimony Monday.

The victim testified about that but invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination when defense attorney Christine Hernandez asked if he had started the incident by hitting her client in the face.

Alexis Kinzer, a Mobile police detective, testified that she has seen video that confirms that victim’s account.

“At one point, everybody starts running,” she testified.

Kinzer testified that the video does not show the actual shooting, but she said she could see the defendant kicking the victim’s feet out from under him and then pursue him while crawling down the hallway.

Mobile County District Judge Spiro Cheriogotis determined prosecutors have sufficient evidence to send two counts of first-degree assault and shooting into an occupied building to a grand jury for possible indictment. He also denied a defense request to reduce the $180,000 bail amount.

The shooting occurred on Jan. 30 at lunchtime. A bullet from the gun grazed the intended target’s hip and continued into the torso of a 17-year-old student who was uninvolved in the altercation.

Kinzer testified that another student gave the gun to the defendant, whose name has been withheld under a law protecting the confidentiality of defendants younger than 18 – even when they are charged as adults. The detective testified that police only recently found that weapon during an unrelated traffic stop involving a drug enforcement operation. Mobile police, citing the pending shooting case, declined to provide details of that stop.

Mobile County District Attorney Keith Blackwood told reporters that he will not tolerate guns in schools.

“In this case, there was an intended target, so we didn’t have a mass-casualty situation; thank goodness,” he said. But this is every parent’s worst nightmare. There was an unintended target in this case. It could have been a lot worse than what it was. And so, this is just something that we cannot tolerate.”

The confrontation that preceded the Jan. 30 shooting appears to have centered on a dispute between the defendant and victim. Kinzer testified that the exact nature of the dispute is not clear, but she said that the defendant told a friend of the defendant that the defendant had “fake friends.”

Hernandez grilled the victim about his actions leading up to the shooting. He took the Fifth when asked about hitting the victim. He denied sending the defendant a threatening text message to the defendant.

Hernandez told reporters that her client was not formally pleading self-defense at this time.

“But it sure sounds like that’s exactly where we are headed because of the testimony from today,” she said.

Hernandez accused the LeFlore High School administration of turning a blind eye to complaints from her client and others about bullying.

“There’s been a long-running issue with physical altercations at LeFlore High School this year, very recently, as well,” she said. “And I have several other cases of incidents that have happened there. … The administration has taken a position that they’re not going to defuse the situation. They are not wanting to suspend students.”

Mobile County Public School System spokeswoman disputed that. She said the schools taking bullying and violence seriously. She said there is an anonymous reporting system and that the schools have counselors to encourage students to resolve conflicts. She said the schools also have a procedure to alert law enforcement to serious incidents.

“When we get complaints, we investigate them,” she said.

Blackwood said he believes the school does take bullying and violence seriously and that it would be irrelevant to the charges anyway.

“Certainly, there’s no reason at all for a student or anyone else to bring a gun into a school and shoot it,” he said. “So no matter what the defense is, it’s inexcusable that someone would take a gun into a school.”

The shooting prompted the school system to pledge tighter security at schools. Data from the Alabama Department of Education show that weapons have been a problem. Over the last three school years prior to the current one, there have been 422 incidents related to weapons. Those incidents range from use of knives to possession of handguns. In all, the states show 49 incidents related to guns, 180 involving knifes and 193 incidents related to other or unknown weapons.

Hernandez said parents expect their children to be safe in school.

“This isn’t the only female student that this is happing to,” she said. “And there’s a group of students that are basically running that school.”

On the issue of bond, Hernandez argued that $180,000 is more than her client’s parents can afford and that the defendant has been denied an education while locked up at Mobile County Metro Jail. She said the family is willing to abide by whatever additional conditions the judge wanted to impose. But Cheriogotis noted that he reviewed video of the incident during the girl’s bail hearing.

“Nothing that I’ve heard today makes me think that the bonds are in any way inappropriate,” he said. “I think the danger to the public is obvious.”

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