Teen who was seen with a rifle near Waukesha North High School charged with three felonies
Six weeks following an incident that prompted officials to secure Waukesha North High School against a potential gun attack, an 18-year-old man will face second-degree recklessly endangering safety and two other felony charges.
Asahel Sa Id Ali, now 18, of Waukesha was also charged Wednesday, May 24, in Waukesha County Circuit Court with resisting an officer causing bodily harm and bail jumping, both felonies, as well as misdemeanor negligent handling of a weapon — counts all loosely tied to an April 14 incident in which he was spotted near the school armed with a small semiautomatic rifle.
However, according to the criminal complaint, the charges have little to do with any direct threat to the school, despite the disruption that unnerved students and school officials that day.
Charges include reckless firearm discharge inside his home
Instead, the reckless endangerment charge is related to the student who first saw Ali, who was 17 at the time, crouched in his family's backyard in the 200 block of Greenmeadow Drive, wearing a pillow case over his head with eye holes. The student, a passenger in a passing vehicle, saw Ali clutching a rifle pointed generally toward Greenmeadow Drive, a street that runs along the high school's rear parking lot.
The negligent weapon handling charge was tied to the investigation that began after the student reported the strange occurrence to the school's resource officer. The complaint said police found a bullet hole through the wall of the family's living room and a bullet hole with the same trajectory through a neighbor's garage, where a spent bullet was found. Authorities concluded Ali fired the weapon that morning, causing the damage and endangering anyone in the bullet's path.
The bail jumping charge is the result of his violation of terms of his release in a Milwaukee County incident, in which he was accused of taking and driving a car without the owner's consent in February. Under those conditions, he was restricted from possessing a firearm. (According to the complaint, the firearm belongs to his father.)
He also allegedly tussled with a police officer at ProHealth Waukesha Memorial Hospital following his arrest, scratching the officer’s arm and culminating in the resisting charge.
Ali tried to enter Waukesha North without permission in March
No shots were fired at the school and no one was injured during the April 14 incident, but the threat, reported shortly before 1 p.m., was serious enough to prompt school administrative officials to enact a safety measure to ensure students remained in the building while police searched for the suspect.
However, in the complaint, authorities also reported a strange incident from one month earlier. Ali — dressed in all black with a hood covering his head, goggles covering his eyes and a neck warmer covering his face — tried to enter the school, but was stopped by a secretary who realized he wasn't a North student. Police said he claimed he needed to use a school bathroom.
As a result of that confrontation, police were aware of Ali when they were called to the neighborhood during the alleged gun incident.
If convicted of the second-degree reckless endangering safety charge, Ali could face as much as 10 years in prison and a $25,000 fine. The bail jumping and resisting an officer charges both carry maximum sentences of six years in jail and $10,000 fines. The misdemeanor weapons negligence charge carries a maximum nine-month jail sentence and $10,000 fine.
Ali remained in custody on a $250,000 cash bond. He is scheduled to return to court May 31 for a preliminary hearing. An attorney had not yet been appointed to him as of Wednesday.
Contact Jim Riccioli at (262) 446-6635 or james.riccioli@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter at @jariccioli.
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Teen with rifle near Waukesha North High School faces 3 felony charges
