The attorney for a 16-year-old boy who fired bullets into three people at the Alberta Arts District's Last Thursday festival said his client is genuinely remorseful for the hasty decisions he made.

"The bottomline here is that guns and teenagers are just a really bad mix," said defense attorney Casey Kovacic, shortly before his client was sentenced to 8 1/3 years in prison on Thursday.

"What happened last May was the result of an undeveloped, impulsive, immature, teenage brain trying to deal with a threatening situation," Kovacic continued. "And you add a deadly weapon into that mixture, and we're very fortunate that no one was killed and no one was more seriously injured."

As part of a plea agreement, Turon Lamont Walker Jr. will serve his entire sentence in a youth correctional facility, where he will receive therapy and an education in hopes of better equipping him to deal with life's challenges when he's released.

Walker's grandmother is Portland's youth violence prevention director, Antoinette Edwards. She attended Thursday's sentencing hearing in Multnomah County Circuit Court. Edwards stood up to tell her grandson that she knows he has remorse, that a courtroom of people showed up to support him, that he is "God's child" and that he is loved.

Walker's grandfather, Keith Edwards, told the judge that he hopes his grandson grows while in custody and doesn't have to pay for his mistake his entire life.

Walker's attorney read an apology letter from his client. In the letter, Walker said he will use the next eight years to improve himself. He wrote that he knows that he hurt three people "who did not deserve to get shot."

At a December hearing, Walker pleaded no contest to first-degree assault, two counts of second-degree assault and unlawful use of a weapon.

After his arrest on May 28, 2015, Walker said he shot a stranger who was following him and his friends and yelling at them. But the five bullets Walker fired missed his intended target and hit two of his 15-year-old friends and a 25-year-old woman. Their injuries included wounds to the elbow and shoulder and grazing wounds to the abdomen from the .40-caliber bullets.

Walker's attorney said his client got the gun from one of his 15-year-old friends -- who ultimately turned out to be one of the shooting victims. The friend was wearing sweat pants and was unable to hold the gun in his waistband. So the friend gave the gun to Walker to hold, Kovacic said.

Walker was seated in the back of a police car when he heard a radio transmission and realized the shots he'd fired struck other people, according to police reports. He has since written apology letters to his victims.

The shooting at Northeast 20th Avenue and Alberta Street sent terror through the monthly grassroots festival that attracts thousands of visitors to stroll past dancers, musicians, artists, shops and art galleries.

Walker has said he was associating with gang members at the time of his arrest. He has had a tumultuous adolescence. According to reports submitted to the court, he has a history of running away -- six times in the past three years. He was expelled from Sam Barlow High School last year because of drug problems and later from two Vancouver high schools because of fighting and marijuana, according to a report.

A pretrial services employee wrote that she didn't think family counseling, drug and alcohol treatment, mentoring and efforts by his parents had much of an impact on Walker.

But Walker's attorney, Kovacic, said he had his client evaluated by a child psychologist, who is optimistic that Walker will make significant strides in his development despite social and emotional delays he's encountered in his childhood.

Kovacic said that Walker has the support of his parents, grandparents and others in the community. Kovacic said his client has been well-behaved while in custody, and has been earning straight A's in his school work.

Judge Eric Bergstrom said he agrees with Kovacic's opening remarks, that guns and teenagers are a dangerous combination.

"When a gun is put in a teenagers hand, you might as well get an hour glass and turn it over because it's only a matter of time before that gun is used," Bergstrom said. "I've seen it far too many times."

-- Aimee Green

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