15-year-old boy avoids jail time for shooting of friend
GREENSBURG (AP) – A 15-year-old boy will avoid jail time for the death of a 13-year-old he shot last year inside a Pennsylvania home.
Westmoreland County Judge Michele Bononi on Friday ordered the boy, of Mount Pleasant, to spend at least three months in a youth treatment program for the shooting death of his friend, 13-year-old James Gustafson.
Police say a baby sitter had asked the boy to scare Gustafson so he would leave the apartment where she was watching three small kids. The boy told police he believed the gun was unloaded when he pointed it at his friend and fired in March 2016.
More than a dozen of Gustafson’s family and friends attended Friday’s hearing.
Leah Gustafson sobbed as she described missing her son and how he wanted to be a firefighter.