WAUKESHA, Wisconsin. – A Waukesha man who prosecutors say was armed with a rifle a block from Waukesha North High School in April 2023 has been sentenced to one year in prison.
According to court records, 19-year-old Asahel Ali agreed to a plea deal in the case on Wednesday. In addition to his prison sentence, he was sentenced to two years of extended probation. He was 17 at the time of the incident.
Case details
It happened on April 14, 2023, around 12:30 p.m. Waukesha police said students saw the teen with a rifle in the backyard of a home a block from the high school.
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According to a criminal complaint, a student reported that the armed teen was wearing a pillowcase with two holes cut out for eyes over his head and was aiming the gun while crouched down as if he was “shooting a squirrel.” A witness told police they saw the same thing, but also saw the gun pointed at the high school at one point.
Police deployed a “significant” presence to protect area schools and searched for the teen after they were secured. Based on previous encounters, an officer believed Ali may have been the teen involved. On March 23, 2023, an incident occurred where he attempted to get into Waukesha North High School, despite not being a student there. The same officer saw Ali on the morning of April 14, 2023, “acting strangely in his front yard and waving a baseball bat around.”
Rifle seized from 17-year-old in Waukesha
Ali was found armed with the rifle in the backyard of his house near the school a short time later. After speaking with the teenager, he surrendered peacefully to the officers and was arrested without further incident. The weapon and a 30-round magazine were confiscated.
The complaint states that a bullet hole was found in the living room of Ali’s house near the school. The bullet was lodged in a neighbor’s garage and he had the empty shell casing in his pocket.
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The complaint states that Ali was taken to a hospital where, while handcuffed, he repeatedly said, “I am free.” There, he “physically resisted” and scratched a police officer, who was treated at the hospital for a cut.
At the time of the Waukesha incident, he was already out on bail on charges he had been charged with taking and driving a vehicle without consent the previous year, according to court records. As a condition of his bail, he was prohibited from possessing any dangerous weapons or firearms.
