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A white Twin Cities man who was sentenced to more than 15 years in prison Wednesday for shooting and wounding five black protesters said he’ll live with the consequences of his actions for the rest of his life, but stopped short of apologizing.
Allen Scarsella’s sentence of 15 years and two months was short of prosecutors’ request for the maximum 20 years but within state guidelines. The 25-year-old Bloomington man was convicted in February on assault and riot charges for shooting the five men at a Black Lives Matter protest encampment outside a North Minneapolis police station following the fatal police shooting of a black man, Jamar Clark, in November 2015.
“I recognize the severity of the events of November 23rd, 2015,” Scarsella said as he stood before Hennepin County District Judge Hilary Caligiuri. He said the shootings were not what he wanted to happen that night when he and three friends went to the protest, where demonstrators chased them away because they were wearing masks.
“I’ll live with the consequences the rest of my life.”
Prosecutor Chris Freeman dismissed self-defense claims that Scarsella made during his trial. He called the crime, “five unarmed black men gunned down in what can only be described as a mass shooting” by a man whose numerous racist texts to friends made his motivations clear to the jury.