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Judge holds teen on all charges related to 2022 Williamsport shooting

Keyon White PHOTO PROVIDED

Moments after multiple shots were fired into a teenager’s bedroom in the 2400 block of Lila Lane, near Prospect Avenue and Linn Street, during the early-morning hours of Sept. 12, the alleged gunman, Keyon White, who turned 17 last week, and co-defendant Nazir Thrower, also 17, were seen on surveillance video taken at the scene “giving each other a high-five,” according to an city police agent’s testimony at White’s recent preliminary hearing.

Before District Judge Christian Frey, Agent Benjamin Hitesman testified “that multiple security videos” existed before, during and after the shooting.

Just before gunfire erupted, White, of Pennsauken Township, New Jersey, “is seen with a bulge in his front sweatshirt pocket, which resembled the handle of a gun,” the agent testified.

“A separate video captured the sound of the shots” while another showed White and Thrower simultaneously giving a high five to one another, according to testimony.

No one was injured in the shooting.

The testimony was presented in a written ruling the judge released Thursday morning in which he said there was sufficient evidence to hold White on all charges, including attempted homicide and aggravated assault, in connection with the shooting.

In his ruling, Frey said the Lycoming County District Attorney’s Office presented sufficient evidence at the hearing that supported police allegations that “White acted with specific intent to kill, and malice, by firing a handgun multiple times into a bedroom occupied by a 15-year-old juvenile. By (allegedly) firing at least five shots, White clearly took a substantial step towards” his attempt to kill the 15-year-old, the judge said in his statement.

“The volume of shots supports the argument that White acted with the specific intent to kill,” Frey said in the ruling.

Another officer to testify at White’s hearing was Patrolman Gino Caschera, who reported that three people were in the home at the time of the shooting, including the 15-year-old, who “police believe was the (intended) target,” Frey said in the ruling.

White, who remains jailed in the Lycoming County Prison on no bail, will face further court action on the two above felonies as well as recklessly

endangering another person, discharging a firearm into an occupied structure and carrying a firearm without a license.

Thrower, who also is behind bars at the county prison on no bail, waived his preliminary hearing last week on four counts of conspiracy in connection with this incident.

White’s mother, Lakeisha White, 46, also of Pennsauken Township, was arrested last week on a felony perjury for allegedly giving false testimony at her son’s placement hearing before a judge on Jan. 26. City police have accused her of giving false information about her son’s whereabouts on the day of the shooting.

She is free on bail and will have a preliminary hearing next week.

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