No decision yet on teen suspect

Published 1:32 am Friday, November 19, 2010

A window at Payne Elementary School in Selma is shattered after being struck with a bullet. Police are investigating the shooting that reportedly involved three teenage males shooting at another group of teenagers standing in front of the school

A certification hearing for a 15-year-old suspect in the November shooting incident that scattered teachers from a library at Payne Elementary School hasn’t yielded any results.

District Court Judge Bob Armstrong, who conducted the hearing in juvenile court, has taken the matter under advisement.

“He wants to talk to the juvenile probation officer,” said Fourth Judicial District Attorney Michael Jackson.

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Youth Court hearings by law are closed to the public. The session was held Tuesday to decide if the juvenile should be treated in the court system as an adult.

Jackson said his office requested the certification because “shots were fired into a building where kids and teachers could have been killed.”

If Armstrong decides the court system should treat the teenager as an adult, then the 15-year-old would be given a bond amount and taken to the Dallas County Jail, according to the district attorney.

The shooting occurred Nov. 25 outside Payne Elementary School after the school day had concluded, but teachers had gathered in the Payne school’s library for a meeting.

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

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

In addition to the teenager, police also arrested Xavier Thompson, 17, who is being held as an adult in the Dallas County Jail under a $2 million bond.

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

At the time of the shooting, eyewitnesses told police shots were fired in the direction of the school at two individuals standing in front of the school.

Selma Police Detective Fred Walker said the shooting likely would end up classified as gang-related.