Payne Elementary shooting suspects face judge

Published 12:48 am Saturday, October 30, 2010

Two teenagers face charges of shooting into an occupied building in an incident Monday afternoon near Payne Elementary School that sent teachers meeting in a library scurrying for safety as bullets pierced windows of the facility.

District Attorney Michael Jackson said his office has filed a petition to certify a 15-year-old Selma High School student as an adult.

The youth, who officials have declined to identify, is in custody at the Juvenile Detention Facility.

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The youth’s probation officer will have to conduct an investigation, and then bring the results to a hearing in Juvenile Court before Judge Bob Armstrong, Jackson said Friday afternoon.

A date for the hearing has yet to be set.

The other individual, Xavier Thompson, 17, is being held as an adult in the Dallas County Jail under a $2 million bond.

“Because he was 17 at the time of the offense of a crime involving a firearm during the commission of a Class B felony, he is automatically treated as an adult,” Jackson said.

Authorities arrested Thompson, also known as “X-Man,” at 9:25 p.m. Thursday, according to police records.

Nobody was injured in the shooting, which saw four windowpanes damaged at the school, three in the library, where teachers were meeting, and one in an unoccupied classroom.

Court records show police recovered three .22-caliber shell casings from the scene.

The shooting occurred Monday around 3:30 p.m. as faculty members at the school gathered in the library for their meeting. Eyewitnesses told police shots were fired in the direction of the school at two individuals standing in front of the school.