TEXAS CITY, Texas (AP) – Police southeast of Houston have upgraded charges against a former police cadet who investigators say may have tried to intentionally fire on other cadets in a classroom.
Texas City police initially said a gun belonging to 21-year-old Clayton Whatley accidentally discharged April 25 when he reached into his backpack. The bullet fragmented and two other cadets were struck in their legs and a third was grazed.
The Galveston County Daily News reports that Whatley initially was charged with unlawful carrying of a weapon.
But he was charged Thursday with two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon after another cadet told police that she believed Whatley was targeting her but fired the weapon too early.
The woman says in a police report that Whatley began to “get weird” after the two had a falling out.
A working phone number for Whatley could not be found.
(Copyright 2019, The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
