Judge: Youth Charged In School Shooting To Be Tried As Adult

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) – A judge in Washington state has ruled that a youth charged with shooting four classmates at a high school in 2017 will be tried as an adult.

Spokane County Superior Judge Michael Price made his decision Tuesday in the case of 17-year-old Caleb Sharpe.

Sharpe is accused of opening fire Sept. 13, 2017, in a hallway of Freeman High School, killing one classmate and wounding three others.

Prosecutors argued that releasing Sharpe from custody at age 21 was not appropriate, calling his actions “aggressive, violent, deliberate” and “willful.”

The defense noted that Sharpe was 15 at the time of the shootings and said the case belonged in juvenile court.

Sharpe could face decades in prison if convicted in adult court.