Case advances against teen accused of firing outside Henrico school

Three 17-year-old classmates pointed to Nicholas Moore yesterday, identifying him as the teenage gunman who fired as many as five rounds at close range from a semi-automatic pistol, barely missing them.

"I heard it go past my head," one of the witnesses testified, referring to a bullet fired Sept. 16 outside Virginia Randolph Community High School.

Henrico County Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court Judge Denis Soden certified felony weapon and attempted-malicious-wounding charges against Moore, now 17. He faces a January trial as an adult and faces up to 63 years in prison if convicted.

Moore, who did not testify yesterday, told authorities he bought a .40-caliber handgun for $250 in South Richmond and had brought it to school the day before the shootings, according to testimony at the hearing. He apparently feared neighborhood classmates from the Central Gardens community east of Glenwood Golf Club who had frequently passed by his home and may have been involved in attacks on his friends.

But the two alleged targets of the shootings, whom Soden asked the media not to identify, testified that Moore taunted them at school Sept. 16. They said that as they approached him on the playground after lunch, Moore told them he had a gun.

"I'm strapped," one of the witnesses quoted Moore as saying. Moore lifted up his shirt, pulled the weapon from his waistband and fired it skyward after one of the witnesses said he dared Moore to "bust it."

Moore next aimed the gun toward the two juveniles, who were standing a few feet away, as well as in the direction of a bystander, firing as many as three times, according to testimony.

Moore ran, chased by two of the classmates, and was arrested by police a short distance away.

Henrico police officer C.R. Long said he placed Moore in his police car and told him he was lucky he wasn't killed by police who had converged in large numbers in the area.

"Not me," Long said Moore answered.

Moore said the two students who approached him were "lucky they didn't get killed," according to Long.

Contact Bill McKelway at (804) 649-6601 or .