Girl Sentenced to Care Facility in School Shooting

WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. —  A 14-year-old girl who admitted she shot and wounded a classmate at a parochial school was sentenced Wednesday to an open-ended term at a psychiatric facility.

Before the sentencing, Elizabeth Bush was asked if she took the .22-caliber revolver to Bishop Neumann Junior-Senior High School with the intention of shooting 13-year-old Kimberly Marchese on March 7. Kimberly was wounded in the shoulder.

Bush said she was upset over being teased by the victim and her friends.

“My original intent was to shoot myself and show everybody how much it [teasing] hurts so they could see,” she told Judge William S. Kieser.

The judge asked what changed her mind.

“It just happened, sir. I don’t know,” she said. “I just wanted to scare her.”

No one else was injured.

In sentencing the teen, Kieser said he did not buy her explanation, citing statements she made to police and notes found in her possession after the shooting.

“I find that you intentionally sought her out and intentionally sought to cause her death,” the judge said.

Bush was sentenced to an indeterminate term at a residential treatment facility for juveniles. The judge will decide when she can be released.

The judge also ordered Bush and her parents to pay full restitution to Kimberly and her parents for expenses resulting from the shooting.