High School Student Arrested For Pellet Gun Attacks

(Updated at 4:30 p.m. Thursday): SILVER SPRING, MD — A Montgomery County high school student has been arrested for shooting five people and multiple vehicles with a pellet gun in the Briggs Chaney area, police announced Thursday.

Tyler Neal, 18, of Burtonsville was arrested Wednesday at Paint Branch High School, where he is a student. School administration located a pellet gun in Neal's backpack, police said.

Neal was transported to the Central Processing Unit and charged with committing the following crimes:

• January 16 – The front windshield of a vehicle parked in the 13800 block of Castle Blvd. was damaged by pellet gun rounds.
• January 17 – A 31-year-old man was driving his vehicle on Columbia Pike in the area of Briggs Chaney Road when his front passenger door window was shattered by a pellet gun round.
• January 23 – A 38-year-old man was shot in the cheek with a pellet gun as he pumped gas at the Exxon Gas Station at 3050 Briggs Chaney Rd. The victim’s vehicle was also damaged by pellet gun rounds.
• January 23 – A 53-year-old man was shot at by a pellet gun in the parking lot of a shopping center in the 13800 block of Outlet Dr. The victim was not injured. His vehicle was damaged by pellet gun rounds.
• January 29 – A 39-year-old female was shot in the leg with a pellet gun and a 37-year-old female was shot in the upper body in a parking lot of shopping center in the 13800 block of Outlet Dr.
• January 29 – A 41-year-old male was shot in the arm by pellet gun rounds as he loaded items into his vehicle in the 14100 block of Aldora Circle. The victim’s vehicle was also struck multiple times by rounds from the pellet gun.

Police charged Neal with first-degree assault, four counts of second-degree assault, dangerous weapon on school property and four counts of felony malicious destruction of property. He is being held at the Montgomery County Detention facility without bail, police said.

Photos via Montgomery County Police