Wyoming Teen Dale Warner To Be Tried As Adult In Planned School Shooting
GILLETTE, Wyo. (AP/CBS4) -- A Wyoming judge has ruled that a teenager should be tried as an adult after he was accused of bringing two guns to his junior high school in Gillette last year with plans to shoot nine people.
Dale Warner, who was 14 at the time, has been charged with nine counts of attempted first-degree murder. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
"His motive was to honor his biological father, who had recently died and who as a teenager had reportedly taken a gun to school," The Gillette News Record reported. "Warner took two handguns and ammunition from his father's truck before getting on the school bus, according to testimony at his preliminary hearing."
"He decided to shoot a class where he didn't like the teacher and where the students 'constantly made jokes about him,'" the paper cited an affidavit as stating.
Wyoming law allows prosecutors to treat a juvenile 14 or older as an adult if the felony is violent. Earlier this month, District Judge John Fenn denied a request by the boy's attorneys to move the case to juvenile court.
(© Copyright 2019 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
