Plea deal under discussion for father whose son is accused in Arlington school killing
The father of the 15-year-old boy accused in the killing last month of another student at an Arlington high school had a revolver, pistol and rifle that were illegal for the father to possess because of a felony conviction, law enforcement authorities allege.
The boy’s father was arrested three days after the March 20 homicide at Arlington Lamar High School. The U.S. Attorney’s Office charged the man in U.S. District Court in Fort Worth with felon in possession of a firearm.
Police seized a 12-gauge shotgun at the high school shooting scene. The shotgun had a fired, 12-gauge cartridge in the chamber that appeared to be the same as a fired 12-gauge cartridge recovered from the scene, wrote Bryan Cline, an Arlington police detective assigned to a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives task force, in a criminal complaint in the father’s case.
A record trace showed a relative of the father bought the shotgun, Cline wrote. The criminal complaint does not use the relative’s name or describe the relationship.
Law enforcement officers executed a search warrant at the apartment where the father and son lived and said they seized from the father’s bedroom three firearms and ammunition.
The father was in 1996 convicted in Louisiana of first-degree robbery and sexual battery, Cline wrote in the criminal complaint.
The teen accused in the homicide is detained a juvenile facility. He was arrested in the minutes that followed the shooting. At a hearing last week in Tarrant County juvenile court, Judge Alex Kim ordered that the teen continue to be detained.
Jashawn Poirier, 16, died at a hospital after he was shot outside the school. Another student, a girl who was sitting on a bench, suffered a graze injury to her face.
Police have not publicly described a motive for the shooting.
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram does not publish the names of youths accused as juveniles of offenses or the names of adults in circumstances in which publication could identify the juvenile.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office and a lawyer who represents the homicide suspect’s father suggested in a joint motion seeking a continuance that they may reach a plea agreement by May 26.
