A teen gunman who opened fire at Wilmer-Hutchins High School last year was sentenced to five years in prison for injuring another student as part of a plea deal Tuesday.
The shooter, identified as Ja’Kerian Rhodes-Ewing, 18, pleaded guilty to aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and unlawfully carrying a firearm in connection with the 2024 shooting. That charge could have resulted in up to 20 years in prison had it gone to trial.
Kobby Warren, Rhodes-Ewing's attorney, told KERA News he had his hearing in court Tuesday, where he accepted the plea deal. Warren declined to further comment on the case.
Police and court records show Rhodes-Ewing, who was 17 at the time, brought a revolver onto school campus and shot one student. He was later arrested and taken into custody that same day.
In the wake of that shooting, dozens of students walked out of class and community members gathered at a town hall meeting to demand solutions to gun violence in the community.
But almost exactly one year later in April, a second school shooting occurred at Wilmer-Hutchins during which police said an armed student was let in through a “secured” side door — though an arrest warrant stated the door was unsecured.
At least four male students were shot during that incident. District officials called the situation “very, very complex,” and not a failure of the staff or protocols, saying it couldn’t have been prevented.
“I don't know that it was preventable,” Dallas ISD Police Chief Albert Martinez said in April during a press conference. “Sometimes when there’s a will there’s a way, but it’s our job to try to defeat that.”
Penelope Rivera is KERA’s breaking news reporter. Got a tip? Email privera@kera.org.
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