NOBLESVILLE, Ind. — The judge in the case for the Noblesville school shooting suspect heard six hours of testimony Monday and said he will consider how to sentence the boy before court resumes next week.
David Moore, who was 13 years old during the May 25 shooting at Noblesville West Middle School, is accused of shooting student Ella Whistler and teacher Jason Seaman. Both victims survived the shooting. Seaman has been hailed as a hero for stopping Moore.
As expected, Moore on Monday entered the juvenile version of a guilty plea. Because of his age and the shootings not being fatal, Moore could not be tried as an adult. The next court session will be 9 a.m. Nov. 14.
During the hearing in the Government and Judicial Center in downtown Noblesville, prosecutors played a video they said the suspect recorded of himself before the shooting. He’s holding a gun and he says that “tomorrow is Friday. You know what that means.”
He goes on to say, “I have to take other people’s’ lives before I take my own.”
Investigators said they found the video after they seized a phone, an iPad and an iPod Touch. A police officer testified that he also discovered Moore searched the internet the day before the shooting for the phrases “Noblesville middle school blue print” and “what was the largest mass shooting in America.”
Also during the hearing, Seamon, a seventh-grade science teacher, testified that on May 25, while his class took a test, Moore asked to use the bathroom. Investigators said he had two handguns in his backpack. Seamen said the boy returned to the classroom and started shooting.
The teacher said he threw a mini-basketball at the boy, tackled him, pinned him down and removed weapon from his pockets. Seaman was shot three times and 13-year-old Whistler was also shot multiple times.
The Whistlers asked during the hearing for the maximum sentence possible, and Seaman asked that Moore not be released back into society until he’s finished mental health treatment and it’s a 100 percent certainty that he is not a threat to himself or anyone else.
The Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office’s juvenile center division commander said Moore is housed alone and does not interact with other juveniles. Prosecutors played a video of the boy at the juvenile center in late October building something with Legos that resembles a rifle.
Prosecutors argued that he is a violent kid and should be locked up in the state’s juvenile detention system. They also requested that he gets mental health treatment and stays on probation until he’s 21.
(PHOTO: WIBC/WISH)
