The 17-year-old who allegedly shot three people in a crowded Santa Clara mall on Black Friday has been charged with attempted murder, and the Santa Clara County DA is determined that the kid face trial as an adult.
There is a sadly familiar chain of events in last weekend’s Black Friday shooting of three people at Santa Clara’s Valley Fair Mall, which police say was a gang-related shooting. Much like a fatal stabbing involving teenagers at San Jose's other large mall, Santana Row, back in February, the alleged shooter in this case did not actually know the men he allegedly intended to shoot, but he perceived them to be members of a rival street gang, just because of the colors they were wearing. (The 15-year-old boy killed in February, who was not a gang member, was allegedly targeted because he was wearing a red jacket on Valentine's Day.)
Regardless, the alleged shooter was found and arrested Sunday night, and it turns out he was just 17 years old. The three shooting victims have all survived, but Bay Area News Group reports that the Santa Clara DA has charged the teen with three counts of attempted murder, and wants the 17-year-old to face trial as an adult.
“When you’re 17 years old, and you take a loaded gun into a crowded shopping mall and you spray it, and you come within inches of killing someone, feet of killing multiple people, you need to go to prison for that,” Santa Clara DA Jeff Rosen told reporters Wednesday morning.
According to KTVU, the 17-year-old is also facing additional charges of personal use of a firearm, plus two counts of assault with a deadly weapon causing great bodily injury. The teen has not been identified by name because he is a minor, but as Rosen pointed out, he was already on probation for a concealed-gun possession charge this past February.
The victims, including the 28-year-old man who was reportedly the intended target and two female bystanders, all survived and were all treated for non-life-threatnening injuries.
Whether the suspect is tried as an adult or a juvenile will make an enormous difference in his sentencing, should he be found guilty. As KPIX explains, these charges would merit a minimum 15-year jail sentence if he’s tried as an adult. If he’s convicted as a juvenile, he’d be kept in a juvenile facility, and could be out in three to five years.
“I don’t believe that three to five years in a juvenile facility will rehabilitate this 17 year old … I don’t think it reflects the seriousness of this conduct,” Rosen said at his Wednesday press conference, per Bay Area News Group. “Taking a loaded firearm into the mall on the Friday after Thanksgiving, and spraying six bullets, is extremely dangerous conduct and will require a significant period of time incarcerated to rehabilitate this person.”
There is also the matter of the teen’s alleged accomplice, 21-year-old Allana Nevaeh Murillo, who was seen pushing a baby stroller alongside the alleged shooter. She is the girlfriend of the teen’s brother, 20-year-old Christian Joel Duran, and the pair are also accused of harboring the suspect in the days after the shooting.
As the news group points out, Murillo and Duran are already facing felony charges for their alleged role in a gang-related 2023 brawl and stabbing at James Lick High School in San Jose.
The unnamed 17-year-old faces his next court date on Monday, December 15. Any ruling on whether he will be tried as an adult or a minor is likely to take months, if not longer.
Image: San Jose Police Department via Facebook
