EVERETT — Prosecutors on Friday charged a 16-year-old Marysville boy as an adult in connection with Tuesday’s shooting outside a south Everett elementary school.
Jose Alfredo Beteran was arrested shortly after police found a 17-year-old boy with a gunshot wound to the chest lying outside Horizon Elementary School on W. Casino Road. The injured teen was rushed to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. The Mariner High School student has been undergoing surgeries for his injuries, Snohomish County deputy prosecutor Julie Mohr wrote in court papers.
Prosecutors allege that Beteran shot the teen during some sort of dispute.
According to court papers, Beteran admitted that he and the other boy have had a beef for years. Beteran reportedly told detectives that the other boy struck him in the hand with a hammer several years ago.
More recently, he said he’d heard that the boy was talking badly about him, Mohr wrote.
Beteran and a friend were walking through the schoolyard Tuesday evening when they saw the other boy on the basketball court. Beteran allegedly confronted the boy. He told detectives the boy took a swing at him so he pulled the gun from his pocket and fired.
He said he’d found the gun at a park in Bellevue three days earlier, Mohr wrote.
Witnesses told police that Beteran was the shooter, court papers said.
Court documents make no mention of Beteran’s ties to a local gang. Beteran has told authorities that he’s belonged to a gang since he was about 13. Police acknowledged earlier this week that the boy who was shot is associated with a rival gang.
Beteran has previous felony convictions for assault and stealing cars.
He now is charged with first-degree assault. Based on his age and alleged crime, prosecutors filed the case in Snohomish County Superior Court. They requested that Beteran be held on $500,000 bail.
Diana Hefley: 425-339-3463; hefley@heraldnet.com.
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