A Jefferson County homeowner is accused of shooting a 17-year-old in the face as the teen was sitting in his car and writing a note to ask for permission to take pictures around the property for an upcoming homecoming date.
The teen was seriously injured in the Tuesday afternoon shooting in the 23000 block of Pleasant Park Road near Conifer when Brent Metz, 38, allegedly fired a gun through the windshield of the teen’s car, according to a news release from the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office.
Metz was arrested in connection with the shooting on charges of first-degree assault, two counts of felony menacing, illegal discharge of a firearm and reckless endangerment.
The teen, who has not been publicly identified, remained hospitalized Wednesday, said Jacki Kelley, a Jefferson County sheriff’s spokeswoman.
The 17-year-old told sheriff’s deputies that he and a friend drove to the property to get permission to use it as a place to take homecoming pictures, the news release said. The boys parked at the front gate, jumped the fence and walked up the driveway to speak to the homeowner.
No one appeared to be home, so the teens walked around the property to see if the homeowner was outside. After failing to find the property owner, the teens returned to their car and began writing a note to ask permission to use the property as a setting for the homecoming pictures, the news release stated.
That’s when Metz, who the teens said they had never met, allegedly drove up in a truck, got out and fired a shot into the car’s windshield, according to the sheriff’s release. The teens were parked on a public roadway and not on private property, Kelley said.
A woman who co-owns the home called the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office to report trespassers after a security camera recorded the teens walking around the property, Kelley said. She was not home at the time, Kelley said, and she also called Metz — her boyfriend and a co-owner of the property..
A deputy was already en route to the address when the shooting occurred.
When the deputy, arrived he found two cars on the side of Pleasant Park Road and the teens outside with Metz standing beside them. The victim’s face was bleeding heavily and his friend was applying pressure with a T-shirt, the news release stated. The deputy found a gun in Metz’s truck.
Kelley declined to say which school the two teens attend, saying, “We trying to offer a little bit more protection for these kids while we can.”
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