South Carolina teenager sentenced to life in prison for school shooting

[November 15, 2019]  (Reuters) - A county judge on Thursday sentenced a South Carolina teenager to life imprisonment for killing his father in 2016 before driving to an elementary school and fatally shooting a 6-year-old boy.

Prosecutors had sought life in prison for Jesse Osborne, 17, who was 14 at the time of the 2016 attack on Townville Elementary School some 40 miles (65 km) southwest of Greenville.

A judge ruled in February 2018 that he be tried as an adult.

Prosecutors said during a trial last year that Osborne had killed his father, Jeffrey Osborne, 47, at their home in Townville before driving to the school in the family’s pick-up truck and crashing it into a fence.

Osborne then began shooting with a handgun on the school playground until he was tackled by a firefighter, who pinned him down until police arrived, according to prosecutors.

Six-year-old student Jacob Hall was shot in the leg and died three days after the attack.

Osborne last year pleaded guilty to murder charges for the crime that rocked the small South Carolina town.

The South Carolina teen planned the shooting at least six days in advance and said on social media that he thought he would kill "around 50 or 60" people, according to the testimony of an FBI agent reported by local media during this week's sentencing hearings.

Osborne also received 30 years for charges of attempted murder to be served concurrently to the life imprisonment sentence.

(Reporting by Maria Caspani, Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

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