LANCASTER, Pa. — Note: The video is from October 2021.
The teenager charged in a shooting that injured three people at Lancaster's Park City Mall will serve up to 32 years in prison following a sentencing hearing Tuesday afternoon in Lancaster County Court, prosecutors said.
Jeremiahs Sanchez, now 19, pleaded guilty in February to more than 60 charges related to the October 17, 2021 shooting. Three people were injured by gunshot wounds and a fourth was injured after being trampled in the ensuing chaos, the Lancaster County District Attorney's Office said.
Sanchez, of Lancaster, entered an open guilty plea on four charges of aggravated assault, receiving stolen property, carrying a firearm without a license, illegal possession of a firearm, possession of a firearm by a minor and 52 counts of recklessly endangering another person, prosecutors said.
Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Ponessa played video footage of the incident to begin the sentencing hearing and noted the defendant’s conduct resulted in four victims being injured.
One of the victims was a mother struck in the arm as she was shielding her young child and another an elderly victim who was trampled as people ran to get out of harm’s way.
Ponessa further stated that Sanchez, who was 16 when the shooting occurred, had already been adjudicated on three separate gun violence charges dating back to 2017.
“On a Sunday afternoon at Park City Mall, the defendant had another stolen, loaded firearm for no reason,” Ponessa said.
Defense counsel argued Sanchez did not start the fight and that two of the victims approached him from behind inside the mall to initiate the incident.
“The defendant was the only one who brought an illegal firearm into the mall that day and he was the only one who opened fire,” Ponessa said. “It was when they were getting pulled apart that he started blindly shooting.”
Defense pointed to Sanchez’s adverse childhood upbringing and previous incidents of his home being “shot up” as reasons the defendant was fearful, but Ponessa pointed to limited cooperation with police when it came to investigating those crimes.
“There’s one inescapable fact here,” Judge Dennis Reinaker said before imposing sentence and after Sanchez and two witnesses spoke on the defendant’s behalf. “The other two (involved in the fight) didn’t have guns. (Sanchez) was the only one to bring a gun into the mall that day.”
Reinaker continued that the event had “somewhat of a terroristic effect on this entire community” and that he considered his sentence by balancing that the defendant was very young when he committed a very serious offense.
Sanchez was walking inside the Park City Mall on the afternoon of Sunday, Oct. 17, 2021, in possession of a loaded firearm that was subsequently reported stolen. He qualified as a person not to possess a firearm due to previous juvenile adjudications.
Sanchez was approached by 18-year-old Elijah Deliz and 30-year-old Sergio Vargas inside the mall. A physical altercation between the three males ensued and Sanchez fired one shot that struck Deliz in the leg and another that struck a 30-year-old uninvolved civilian in the arm. The civilian was with her 5-year-old child.
Deliz and Vargas were also charged in connection to the incident, prosecutors said.
Vargas then pulled Sanchez to the ground and another shot was fired that struck Vargas in the hand.
An innocent bystander legally possessing a firearm shot at Sanchez three times in defense of himself and others, told Sanchez to stop moving, and removed the firearm Sanchez possessed from the situation.
The bystander was cleared of any criminal charges by Lancaster County District Attorney Heather Adams.
A mass exodus from the mall following the shooting caused an elderly woman to fall and be trampled resulting in a broken elbow, aspired lung and admittance to a personal care facility.
There were 52 individuals, including small children, in the vicinity when the shooting occurred, according to prosecutors.
Former Lancaster City Bureau of Police Detective, now Lancaster County Detective, Stanley Roache filed charges and attended the sentencing proceeding.