GAMECOCKBOY
07-15-2006, 09:10 AM
si.com
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- Two men who shot a Vanderbilt football player at a campus party were sentenced to six years in prison.
Davidson County Criminal Court Judge Randall Wyatt said he wanted to send a message about bringing guns to school campuses as he sentenced Carlos Branch, 26, and Edward Allen Jr., 23, to the maximum sentence possible."Anybody could have been killed," Wyatt said, adding that he didn't care whether the shooting occurred at Vanderbilt or any other college in Nashville.
The two men, who were not Vanderbilt students, shot redshirt freshman wide receiver George Smith in the arm during the Sept. 25 incident. Smith, from Hollywood, Fla., testified during the sentencing hearing.
"I feel like the judge made the right decision," he said after the hearing.
Two other football players were injured in the incident, though not by gunshots. Derrius Dowell and Reshard Langford were also treated for minor cuts and released from the Vanderbilt hospital emergency room.
About 50 people were at the party celebrating a football victory at a campus apartment when a resident assistant went to break it up. The shooting occurred after Branch and Allen were asked to leave and forced into an elevator by a group of students.
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Information from: The Tennessean, www.tennessean.com
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- Two men who shot a Vanderbilt football player at a campus party were sentenced to six years in prison.
Davidson County Criminal Court Judge Randall Wyatt said he wanted to send a message about bringing guns to school campuses as he sentenced Carlos Branch, 26, and Edward Allen Jr., 23, to the maximum sentence possible."Anybody could have been killed," Wyatt said, adding that he didn't care whether the shooting occurred at Vanderbilt or any other college in Nashville.
The two men, who were not Vanderbilt students, shot redshirt freshman wide receiver George Smith in the arm during the Sept. 25 incident. Smith, from Hollywood, Fla., testified during the sentencing hearing.
"I feel like the judge made the right decision," he said after the hearing.
Two other football players were injured in the incident, though not by gunshots. Derrius Dowell and Reshard Langford were also treated for minor cuts and released from the Vanderbilt hospital emergency room.
About 50 people were at the party celebrating a football victory at a campus apartment when a resident assistant went to break it up. The shooting occurred after Branch and Allen were asked to leave and forced into an elevator by a group of students.
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Information from: The Tennessean, www.tennessean.com