A young man in Wisconsin has been charged after police found he was armed with an assault rifle outside a local high school. 18-year-old Asahel Ali has been charged with second-degree recklessly endangering safety, resisting an officer, negligent handling of a weapon and felony bail jumping. Waukesha North High School is located right outside of Milwaukee and on April 14th, students reported a man with a mask on walking a block away from the school. Some students even say that they saw the individual pointing the gun towards the school.
According to Fox 6:
Police deployed a “significant” presence to safeguard area schools and, once they were secured, searched for the teen. Based on prior encounters, an officer believed Ali may have been the teen involved. There was a March 23 incident in which he tried to get into Waukesha North High School, even though he is not a student there. The same officer saw Ali the morning of April 14 “acting bizarre in his front yard waving a baseball bat around.”
Ali was found a short time later in the backyard of his home near the school armed with the rifle. After talking with the teen, police said he peacefully surrendered to officers and was taken into custody without further incident. The gun and a 30-round magazine were recovered. The complaint states a bullet hole was found in the living room of Ali’s home near the school. The bullet was lodged inside a neighbor’s garage, and he had the spent casing in his pocket.
“I don’t think it’s quite as aggravated as the community initially thought,” the defense said in court Wednesday for Ali’s initial appearance.
The complaint states Ali was taken to a hospital where, while handcuffed, he repeatedly said “I’m free.” He became “physically resistive” there and scratched an officer, who was treated at the hospital for a laceration.
When the incident took place Ali was out on bail for a case involving driving a vehicle without consent. He was ordered by the judge to not possess any firearms as a bail condition.
