A 22-year-old Boston man received an 8-year prison sentence Mondayfor opening fire inside the South Shore Plaza in Braintree in July 2020, wounding a 15-year-old female bystander, officials said Tuesday.
In a statement, Norfolk District Attorney Michael W. Morrissey’s office said the defendant, Jose Rodriguez, pleaded guilty Monday in Norfolk Superior Court to several charges of armed assault to murder and possession of a large capacity firearm stemming from the July 3, 2020, shooting.
Judge Douglas H. Wilkins then sentenced him to serve eight years in state prison, followed by three years of probation, the statement said.
“This was an outrageously reckless and dangerous act,” Morrissey said in the statement. “This defendant punched a woman in line at a store, causing an altercation between parties. He stepped away, retrieved the loaded firearm he was carrying and fired six times in the thick of the mall.”
Advertisement
Authorities have said previously that Rodriguez opened fire inside the mall at 4:33 p.m. on the day of the shooting, after a “large brawl” had broken out between two groups at an Expressions store in the building’s Nordstrom wing. Following the brawl, officials said last year, Rodriguez pulled out a handgun and opened fire, officials said.
Police found the 15-year-old victim huddled in a second-floor bathroom in the Nordstrom store bleeding from her wounds, suffered a 2.5 centimeter graze wound to her chest and a 7 centimeter wound on her right hand, where she also suffered a fracture during the gunfire, prosecutors have said. The girl survived the shooting.
“It is only a matter of luck that the innocent girl who was shot, or any number of others in the area at the time, were not killed by these actions,” Morrissey said in Tuesday’s statement.
Material from prior Globe stories was used in this report.
Advertisement
Travis Andersen can be reached at travis.andersen@globe.com.