By Joe Johnson
A man has been sentenced to 30 years in prison for his role in an Athens shootout that injured two innocent young bystanders, one of whom lost her eye.
Rasheed Ammad Scott, 38, was sentenced Wednesday after pleading guilty to two counts each of aggravated assault, cruelty to children in the first degree, possession of and one count of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
The pleas were entered as part of a negotiated agreement with prosecutors in which two counts of aggravated battery and a third aggravated assault charge were dismissed.
Under the plea deal the entire 30-year sentence must be served in confinement.
Scott was arrested under an Atlanta address, but he has an extensive criminal drug history in Athens. Trafficking cocaine is among the offenses for which he has been prosecuted in Clarke County Superior Court.
At the time of the shooting he was on parole related to convictions for drug and gun offenses in Gwinnett County.
The shootout occurred the afternoon of April 26 when, according to police, four males met for an apparent drug deal in the parking lot of Athens Plaza on North Avenue and when an argument broke out, they began shooting at each other.
None of the males were shot, police said, but two girls were injured by a stray bullet that shattered the window of a dance school where they were attending class.
Five-year-old Ne’vaeh Brown was struck in the left eye by what police said could have been glass or a bullet fragment, and the actual bullet struck 14-year-old Neveah Hogue, completely passing through her right arm.
Brown underwent surgery but doctors were unable to save her eye.