NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — Six months after a shooting at Heritage High School, court documents show that prosecutors intend to try the 15-year-old boy accused of carrying out the shooting as an adult.
The teenager, Jacari Taylor, was a student at the high school. Police said he opened fire inside it, hitting two 17-year-old students.
Newly filed paperwork provides a narrative of what happened at Heritage on the day of the shooting in September 2021.
In a probable cause statement, Newport News police said security footage shows two students fighting. Officers added one of the students, Taylor, pulled out a gun and started shooting.
Documents said Taylor told police the other person punched him in the face and Taylor started shooting at him multiple times. Taylor said about 100 people were in the hallway at that time.
The paperwork goes on to say the student with whom Taylor fought started running away, but Taylor said he kept shooting because he "didn’t think I hit him.”
Taylor told police he ran out of the school after the shooting and tossed the gun in a trashcan.
The father of one of the victims told 13News Now his son lost a finger, can’t hear out of his left ear, and still is traumatized by what happened.
Taylor faces several charges, including two counts of Aggravated Malicious wounding for shooting the other students. He is scheduled for a plea hearing in April.
Court documents said Taylor was convicted of Malicious Wounding and Use of a Firearm in March 2021, months before the shooting at Heritage High School.