Man gets 70-year sentence for shooting that killed 10-year-old at high school football game

MAYS LANDING, N.J. (AP) — A New Jersey man who fired several shots in the stands during a high school football playoff game, leaving a 10-year-old spectator dead and wounding two other people, has been sentenced to 70 years in prison.

Alvin Wyatt, 35, of Atlantic City, had been convicted in July on murder and related charges. He was sentenced Monday. He had argued at trial that he acted in self-defense when he opened fire at Pleasantville High School on Nov. 15, 2019.

The shooting left a man and two children wounded. One of the youths, Micah Tennant, was shot in the neck while he watched the game with his mother and sister. Tennant died five days later, just hours before the playoff game was resumed at the Philadelphia Eagles stadium.

Authorities have said the wounded man was targeted by Wyatt and was among those charged in the case. Wyatt was captured on the football field moments after the shooting by a Pleasantville officer who was part of the game’s security detail.

During the trial, it was noted that the man had shot at Wyatt about three weeks earlier. Wyatt testified that he met some friends at the game and was walking through the stands when he happened to encounter the man, who Wyatt said threatened to shoot him.

Wyatt said he saw a gun in the victim’s waistband and opened fire to protect himself when he saw the victim reach for his weapon. Authorities have said the victim — who has used a wheelchair since the shooting — did have a weapon but did not fire it. He eventually pleaded guilty to attempted murder and a weapons charge.