Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 2, 1993 TAG: 9306020233
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
He said he was "out to get" a student at the Alternative Education Center, according to Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Alice Ekirch.
Michael Jerome Reynolds was equally candid Tuesday with a judge, pleading guilty to wounding an 18-year-old rival in a hail of gunfire that sent other students running for cover.
Reynolds has been locked up in a juvenile detention home since September, and will stay there until a July 16 sentencing hearing. He faces 60 years in prison for malicious wounding and an unrelated charge of distributing cocaine.
The shooting stemmed from an argument about some stereo equipment that reportedly was stolen from the victim, Shawn Brown.
During a hearing in Roanoke Circuit Court, Ekirch provided the following summary of the evidence:
On the morning of Sept. 16, Reynolds and his 16-year-old cousin went to the Orange Avenue Northwest school looking for Brown.
George Franklin, who heads the school for students deemed likely to drop out, was told that day that Reynolds was armed. But Reynolds denied having a gun when Franklin found him sitting on a wall at the edge of school property.
Reynolds did say, however, that he and his cousin were "going to get that [expletive]," referring to Brown, Ekirch said.
Brown and Reynolds' cousin had been in a fistfight earlier that day, and Franklin has said he did not fear anything more serious. School officials say Franklin had no reason to believe Reynolds was armed, and that they try not to make such assumptions in every schoolyard fight.
Shortly after noon, Brown was ready to leave for the day and asked Franklin to escort him to his Suzuki Samurai in the parking lot.
Reynolds and the other teen were waiting nearby.
As Brown got into his vehicle, Reynolds walked up and fired a shot through the passenger's side window. It hit Brown in the hip.
As Reynolds continued to fire, Franklin tried to knock the gun out of his hand. Brown fled, but Reynolds chased him and fired more shots as they ran across the schoolyard, into a building and down a crowded hallway, then back outside again.
One witness said Reynolds reloaded on the run, taking ammunition from his companion, who was running just behind him.
After losing Brown in the chase, Reynolds returned to the Samurai, fired several shots into the windshield, and fled. He was arrested several hours later.
Last week, he was convicted in juvenile court of other charges - shooting into an occupied vehicle, use of a firearm and carrying a weapon on school property.
Reynolds was the first person in Roanoke to be charged with carrying a gun on school property, a law passed by the General Assembly in response to growing reports of gun-carrying teens and their violent acts.
A judge also found him guilty of reckless endangerment in an incident in which he pointed a gun at Brown and fired several shots three weeks before the alternative-education shooting.
Although Reynolds received an indeterminate sentence in a state home for juveniles on those charges, he was tried as an adult and faces prison on the more serious drug and shooting charges.
The drug charge stemmed from the sale of crack to an undercover police officer in August on Melrose Avenue Northwest.
Reynolds was not enrolled in school at the time of the shooting; he had been an alternative education student but was dismissed because of disciplinary problems.
He did not speak in court on Tuesday, except to answer Judge Diane Strickland's questions with a "yes, ma'am" or "no, ma'am."
But one of his attorneys, Richard Lawrence, said evidence will be presented at the sentencing hearing about mitigating factors in the case. Lawrence has said earlier that Brown was the instigator of the dispute, and Reynolds acted only to protect himself and his family.
by CNB