Mpls. park shooter gets jail, probation

A man who fired numerous gunshots in a Minneapolis park where children were playing has been sentenced to a year in jail and eight years of probation.

The sentence by Hennepin County District Court Judge William Koch for August Fleming has disappointed county Attorney Mike Freeman who asked for a longer sentence than the mandatory five years in prison.

Koch instead stayed a 90-month prison term Monday and sentenced the 20-year-old Fleming to 365 days in the Hennepin County Jail.

Fleming fired six shots in Folwell Park while children were playing basketball and soccer last October. A soccer coach wrote to the judge and told him he had to tell his young players to drop to the ground, while others ran to their parents as the bullets flew.

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