Lawrence man convicted in shooting of teen amid ‘Roman candle war’

photo by: Douglas County Sheriff's Office

Rashan A. Gill

A man now stands convicted in a summertime shooting that wounded a 17-year-old girl outside a Lawrence apartment complex.

In the early-morning hours of July 5, 2018, the girl was in a car with friends who had been aiming Roman candles at the apartment building where Rashan A. Gill, 20, lived. Gill came outside and fired a handgun at their car, and a bullet hit the girl in the back seat.

Gill was charged with criminal discharge of a firearm, a felony, and was scheduled to go on trial Monday.

However, he instead pleaded no contest and was convicted of attempted aggravated battery, a felony, according to Cheryl Wright Kunard, assistant to the Douglas County district attorney. Gill’s sentencing is scheduled for Feb. 19.

Gill has been jailed on $50,000 bond, which the judge revoked upon his conviction, Wright Kunard said.

Gill’s lawyer previously argued that his client fired in defense of himself and his home, at the Reserve on West 31st, in the 2500 block of West 31st Street.

The Roman candle war created “utter chaos” for 10 or 15 minutes outside Gill’s first-floor apartment, appointed attorney Branden Smith wrote in a request to have the case dismissed under Kansas’ stand-your-ground law.

Three times Gill went outside to tell the people to leave, taking his gun the second and third times, Smith wrote. Someone from the car shot Gill in the chest with a Roman candle, and he fired back in self-defense, unfortunately hitting the uninvolved girl in the back seat, Smith wrote.

Prosecutor Alice Walker argued that “… no reasonable person in the Defendant’s circumstances would have perceived that the use of deadly force was necessary to defend himself, others, or property.”

The judge found that Gill’s use of force wasn’t justified and denied his request to drop the case.

The girl’s friends drove away from the scene and took her to the hospital. Her injuries were serious but not life-threatening.

Police investigated and identified Gill as the suspect, and he was arrested in September 2018.

Contact Journal-World public safety reporter Sara Shepherd

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