WA judge decides school shooting suspect comments are admissible

caleb-sharpe

A Spokane County judge has ruled that incriminating statements to law officers made by a student arrested after four people were shot at an Eastern Washington high school last year will be admissible in coming court proceedings.

Superior Court Judge Michael Price made the decision Monday in the case of 16-year-old Caleb Sharpe, who was arrested for the September 13th death of one classmate and the wounding of three others at Freeman High School south of Spokane. Price ruled that Sharpe’s statements to sheriff’s deputies can be used both at an August 13th hearing to decide if he will be tried as an adult, and at his subsequent trial.

Sharpe faces one charge of aggravated first degree murder, three charges of attempted first degree murder, and 51 counts of second-degree assault. He was 15 at the time of the shootings.

Spokane County sheriff’s detectives who interviewed Sharpe after the shootings wrote in court records that Sharpe told them about watching documentaries on past school shootings at Columbine High School and Sandy Hook.

Sharpe said he loaded an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle into a golf bag to conceal it, and placed a .32-caliber handgun in his pocket. The detectives wrote that Sharpe said the plan went exactly as intended. (AP)

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