"May God forgive you, sir, because we will not."

By Shenequa Golding

A former Boston high school dean who students referred to as “Rev” because of his pious demeanor was sentenced to 26 years in prison for shooting a 17-year-old in the head over drug money.

According to USA Today, 55-year-old Shaun Harrison boasted about his gang ties and guns and recruited Luis Rodriguez, an at risk student from a broken home, to sell marijuana inside the school for him. However after a dispute over falling drug sales, Harrison shot the teen in the back of the head with a .380 pistol on a snowy day and left him to die.

Rodriguez however didn’t die and flagged down a driver who took him to the nearest hospital. The bullet traveled through Rodriguez’s right ear and barely missed the carotid artery, which left him with a broken jaw, nerve damage and hearing loss.

Police Commissioner William Evans didn’t suspect Harrison to be someone capable of such a heinous crime. “This guy is probably the last person we would expect,” Williams said. “He was an advocate for anti-violence. Why would he be on our radar screen?”

The morning after Harrison shot Rodriguez, there was a complaint he shoved a female student. School officials said they were going to fire him because of the encounter, but Harrison had been arrested the next day and charged with attempted murder. Harrison vehemently denies the allegations.

“I am not a gang member. I’m the Rev,” he said. “For me to be accused of something like that, all of a sudden at 55, It’s like a nightmare, and you are trying to wake up from this nightmare.”

Harrison’s lawyer says it’s unfair his client has to die in prison, to which the judge referred to him as an “assassin.” In between sobs, Rodriguez’s aunt, Diana Rodriguez, made one final statement to Harrison.

“May God forgive you, sir, because we will not.”

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