Defendants weigh plea offer in weapon indictments linked to Everman High shooting threat
Two men who law enforcement authorities have said intended to shoot an Everman High School student last year during a homecoming football game at the school are considering whether to accept or decline plea bargain offers in their indictment in the case.
Brandon Gipson, 19, and Isaac Cooper, 18, would plead guilty to unlawful carrying of a weapon in a prohibited place and be sentenced to five years of probation with deferred adjudication under the offer from the Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney’s Office, according to a document filed on April 24 in which the defendants acknowledged the offer.
Police have said they found a pistol and 60-round magazine in the defendants’ vehicle when police stopped it on Sept. 16, 2022, as the men were on their way to the game. A Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office sergeant received a tip about a threat of violence to occur during the game.
Police told the Joshua school district that Gipson and Cooper were targeting an Everman student at the game in which Everman played Joshua High School, according to an email the district sent to students’ parents.
Officers saw a vehicle matching the description they had received driving on Race Street toward the football stadium, according to Everman police. Officers stopped the defendants’ vehicle at the east gate entrance to the stadium.
Beyond the weapon crime, Gipson and Cooper were arrested on suspicion of terroristic threat and endangering a child, but were not indicted on those offenses. A 10-year-old was in the defendants’ vehicle when it was stopped, authorities said.
One of the defendants graduated from Everman High in 2021, police said.
The district attorney’s office extended the plea bargain offers until status conferences in 396th District Court in Tarrant County for Cooper on June 12 and an unscheduled date for Gipson.
In deferred adjudication, a conviction would not appear on a defendant’s record if he successfully completes the terms of his probation.
