Teen sentenced in BB gun incident in which officer shot him: ‘I learned my lesson… scars give you lessons’
Waleed Al Thuwayni, shot twice by Sgt. Derek Feather after the teen pointed a BB gun at him last March, began wailing in court Thursday when Feather said that when Thuwayni did that it resulted in “a response no one intended or wished for you.”
MANCHESTER, NH – Waleed Al Thuwayni, shot twice by Sgt. Derek Feather after the teen pointed a BB gun at him last March, began wailing in court Thursday when Feather said that when Thuwayni did that it resulted in “a response no one intended or wished for you.”
Judge N. William Delker, presiding in Hillsborough County Superior Court North, called a brief halt to the sentencing hearing to allow Thuwayni to gain control of himself. During that break, Thuwayni’s attorneys, Jordan Strand and Brian Civale, consoled their client, while Feather remained standing only feet away from the teenager.
The courtroom was at capacity, with half of the court filled with uniformed Manchester police officers, and the other half with family and friends of Thuwayni, along with defense attorneys.
When the proceeding began again, Feather continued with his statement. “Your actions, your decisions forced me to make a decision in that,” and Feather paused for a long time before continuing “that could have not been made. I was forced to protect myself.”
Feather said he still has questions, answers for which will remain elusive. One of them, he said, was “Why was I faced with this unimaginable choice?”
Al Thuwayni was 18 at the time of the incident. The shooting took place on March 26, 2023. Police said they ticketed him at 11:07 p.m. on March 25, 2023, and Thuwayni went to the police station to argue about it.
After he left, police began receiving 911 calls about a car driving recklessly near Elm and Valley streets. The car, a 2004 black Nissan 350Z convertible with NH license plates LAMAFIA, reached speeds of 60 mph and was reportedly doing burnouts.
Feather located the car in the lot at the JFK Memorial Coliseum where Thuwayni pointed the BB gun, which appeared to be real, at Feather. Feather fired six shots, hitting Thuwayni twice, once in the abdomen.
“No don’t save me,” Al Thuwayni told officers while handcuffed, wounded and on the ground. “That was a BB gun. I knew you guys were going to shoot me. I knew the second I raised my BB gun you guys were going to shoot me, that’s why I did it.”
He was ultimately arrested and charged with reckless conduct, criminal threatening with a deadly weapon and disobeying a police officer.
On Thursday, he pleaded guilty to reckless conduct and criminal threatening. On the reckless conduct charge, he was given a 2-to-4-year suspended sentence and a 12-month suspended sentence for the criminal threatening charge.
His license was revoked for 120 days.
He also was given pre-trial confinement credit of 228 days. Forty-two of those days were home confinement.
Thuwayni also must participate in Young Adult Court, a Hillsborough County Superior Court Northern District pilot program that creates an alternate sentencing track for young adults charged with a crime. The program is for those between the ages of 18 and 25 at high risk of committing another crime and provides various services including job training, education assistance, mental health treatment and case management.
Strand told the judge that Thuwayni has been apologizing for his actions for quite a while. She said he is an incredible person who has gone through things in life “none of us could ever imagine.” She said Young Adult Court will give him the coping skills he needs to move ahead and succeed in his life.
Thuwayni, facing his family, also made a statement. He said he was born in Iraq. As a child there, he said, it wasn’t very safe. “There were guns, bombs, violence. A lot of family died,” he said.
The family moved to Syria where he did well in school. At one point, he said he had the highest grades of anyone in the school. Then the family had to move again, this time to the United States where he had to learn a new language.
Thuwayni didn’t mention the shooting or apologize.
“I learned my lesson,” he said. “Scars give you lessons.”
Manchester Police Chief Allen Aldenberg also addressed the court. He told the judge that while he respected the proposed sentence, he disagreed with it. Thuwayni, he said, should be incarcerated.