SAN JOSE
– A judge ordered a psychiatric evaluation Monday for the
13-year-old Gilroy boy facing up to six years incarceration and
$10,000 in fines for firing a pellet gun into a group of Gilroy
High School students outside the school Dec. 11.
SAN JOSE – A judge ordered a psychiatric evaluation Monday for the 13-year-old Gilroy boy facing up to six years incarceration and $10,000 in fines for firing a pellet gun into a group of Gilroy High School students outside the school Dec. 11.
The decision by Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Eugene M. Hyman came during the boy’s first court appearance following the incident that left the GHS administration and many parents on edge.
Hyman also decided to combine the boy’s three felony assault with a deadly weapon charges stemming from the incident with his other pending misdemeanor case from Stanislaus County, the details of which were not released.
“The idea of the psychiatric evaluation is so probation can determine a proper sentence,” said Dave Soares, the deputy district attorney handling the case Monday. “The judge wants to find out what other factors this boy might be dealing with.”
On Monday, the 13-year-old – who’s name cannot legally be released – sat quietly next to his mother in the juvenile court facility in San Jose. The boy has been in juvenile hall since his arrest Dec. 11. Prior to being handcuffed to go back to his room on Monday, he gave his mother two long hugs before reluctantly letting go.
The boy will be back in court next Monday, when he is expected to enter a plea.
“I would be surprised if the charge is contested,” Soares said. “But we will see.”
The boy’s acting attorney declined to comment on the case.
The confrontation began shortly before 8 a.m. Dec. 11 on Princevalle Street just east of GHS when a group of four male and one female Gilroy High students met up with a group comprised of the 13-year-old gunman, who is not enrolled in any district school; a male district student who does not attend GHS; and two female GHS students, according to police.
After a brief exchange of words, the 13-year-old brandished the gun from his pants and fired six to seven rounds into the opposing group from a close distance, grazing two students’ pants with pellets and hitting another near the ankle, according to police. The pistol contained an air cartridge, making it more powerful than most BB guns, police said.
Following the shots, school supervisors in the area immediately alerted Mike Terasaki, the Gilroy Police Department’s resource officer at the school. Terasaki quickly questioned witnesses on the crowded street just east of the school and minutes later apprehended the suspect on Glenview Court, where he had hidden the gun underneath a parked car.
Five police units and an ambulance responded to the scene. The only victim of the shooting, a GHS freshman, was treated at the scene and then taken by his parents to get the pellet lodged in his ankle removed.
GHS Principal Bob Bravo – who has only been at the school since August – said this was the first incident involving a weapon he had seen at or near the school, but he did admit that non-students loitering near the school are a perpetual concern.
Gilroy High School administrators did take disciplinary action against several of the seven GHS students involved in the incident, but the details of the punishments were not released.
