Tion Bell admitted in Howard County Circuit Court on Monday to shooting a 4-year-old boy with a stray bullet that crashed through the toddler?s living room window in January.
“I?m very apologetic to the family of the little kid,” said Bell, 18, of Columbia.
Bell pleaded guilty to first-degree assault and use of a handgun while committing a crime of violence.
Judge Lenore Gelfman sentenced him to 15 years in prison.
“All individuals have a right to feel safe in their neighborhood, their place of work and certainly their home,” Gelfman said. “… I?m just amazed the little boyhas
survived.”
Prosecutors said that Bell on Jan. 20 intended to shoot another man, who accused Bell of being a “snitch,” but missed and struck 4-year-old Fahad Islam in the head as he colored in his family?s Long Reach living room.
Bell shot at least 10 times near Islam?s residence on Long Reach?s Airybrink Lane, prosecutors said.
“To harm a 4-year-old by shooting him in the head because someone called someone else a ?snitch? is ridiculous,” said Assistant State?s Attorney Colleen McGuinn.
Islam has sinced turned 5 and started kindergarten Monday.
Islam?s life was saved because the bullet, which crashed through his family?s window, lodged itself in a portion of his head that did not damage brain tissue the boy needs to function, family members said.
The director of the Division of Pediatric Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins operated on Islam and removed the bullet.
Islam?s mother, Farida Begum, said her son remains easily frightened because of the shooting.
“He?s scared when people knock on the door,” she said, adding that the family is “satisfied” with Bell?s sentence.
Howard County State?s Attorney Timothy McCrone said the people of Long Reach should feel safer with Bell behind bars.
