General District Judge Robert H. Downer Jr. sentenced 22-year-old Michael Hensley and 18-year-old Cody Shifflett to what amounted to a weekend in jail and 50 hours of community service after the men each pleaded guilty to one count of misdemeanor assault. The other assault count against them was not prosecuted.
A police officer testified that it took an hour for authorities to find a Jeep from which a pellet was fired at a man Dec. 13 at the Barracks Road Shopping Center. Matthew J. Quatrara, assistant commonwealth’s attorney, said in court that the pellet hit the man’s coat, bounced off onto a storefront and fell onto the ground. The man was uninjured.
Quatrara said in court that the incident was “childish, juvenile, immature behavior with a toy” that happened during the holiday shopping season, but it didn’t injure anyone.
“This could have been a much more dangerous situation than what took place,” the prosecutor said.
Authorities said Hensley and Shifflett admitted what happened to police. Michael Hallahan, Hensley’s attorney, said in court that the man who was hit didn’t see anything pointed at him.
Quatrara said in court that the man who was hit might not have been able to judge that it was a pellet gun even if he had seen it because it was nighttime.
Downer sentenced both men to 120 days in jail, suspending 116 days of those sentences in what he ruled would be the equivalent of one weekend in jail. The men also must complete 50 hours of community service.
Authorities have said they questioned Hensley and Shifflett about a window-shattering BB gun shooting incident at the city police station an hour after the Barracks shooting. Both men told police that they weren’t involved. Ric Barrick, the city’s spokesman, said Thursday that no arrests have been made in the station shooting.