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WILKES-BARRE TWP. — A Shenandoah man accused of opening fire in the parking lot of the Wilkes-Barre Township Walmart in October is heading to higher court to face a slew of charges.
Scott Sargent, 31, appeared before Magisterial District Judge Michael Dotzel for a preliminary hearing on Thursday. After hearing testimony from two civilians and six police officers, Dotzel forwarded all charges to higher court.
Assistant District Attorney Jarrett Ferentino said during the closing arguments that he was “completely blown away” by Sargent’s one alleged shot that narrowly missed a police officer’s head.
He also added that the officers involved in the shootout were deeply affected by it.
“These officers are fortunate to be alive,” he said.
District Attorney Stefanie Salavantis said investigators have yet to determine what caused Sargent to start shooting.
She and Ferentino, however, both agreed that motive “is no longer an issue at this point.”
“We’re very fortunate we’re not here under different circumstances, in which the defendant would be charged with homicide,” she said.
Salavantis also commended responding officers from Wilkes-Barre and Wilkes-Barre Township for their “quick” and “extraordinary” response to the shooting.
“I think it’s always difficult for officers to revisit a situation such as this, especially when all of their lives were at risk and the community was at risk,” she said.
Two Pennsylvania State Police troopers sat near Sargent throughout the hearing. Sargent was quiet as he was escorted into the building by the troopers and appeared to stare at the table in front of him as witnesses recalled details of the incident.
Police initially received a call at 12:39 p.m. on Oct. 17 for a report of an active shooter at the Walmart. Officers from multiple municipal agencies, as well as state police, responded to the scene.
Zachery McNeill, a technician in the Walmart’s automotive center, testified he was in the service bay area on the day of the shooting when he heard shots fired. He looked out a small window in the garage’s bay door and saw Sargent shooting at a door near him.
He said that he and the other auto technicians dove for cover when three rounds struck the garage’s bay door.
Alonzo Randall, who was shopping at Walmart at the time of the incident told the court he wasn’t aware a shooting had occurred and didn’t notice a bullet hole in his vehicle until he got home.
Several police officers testified that Sargent fired upon responding police cars using an AR-15-style .223-caliber rifle as they arrived. Prosecutors displayed the weapon Sargent allegedly used as evidence during the proceedings.
Officers said Sargent was using his own vehicle to steady his aim and that a woman was inside the car during the shootout. The woman was not identified.
Wilkes-Barre Township police officer Brian Bouton testified that he had to use a police SUV to provide cover for other officers at the scene.
He said the initial shots fired at him by Sargent struck the vehicle’s passenger-side mirror. When Sargent fired on him again, Bouton said, the officer ducked into the passenger seat as bullets hit the SUV’s windshield and driver-side headrest.
“If I was sitting up,” Bouton said, “(the bullets) would have went right through my head.”
When asked if he sustained any injuries from the shootout, Bouton replied “physical, no.”
City Patrolman Alan Gribble, the officer who ended the October incident by shooting and wounding Sargent, testified that he remembered Sargent shooting at him specifically at one point, saying he could distinctly recall the sound of bullets zipping past his face.
Describing the gunfire that narrowly missed him, Gribble recalled his military training, where he had bullets fired over his head.
“Once you start hearing the sounds of bullets flying over your face, you never forget it,” he said.
Once he found an acceptable vantage point, he said, he shot Sargent once with a 12-gauge shotgun.
City police officer Joe Sinavish testified that Sargent was “irate” while he was being treated by emergency medical personnel and that troopers had to put a mask on him after he kept spitting at first-responders.
Sargent is charged with six counts of criminal attempt to commit homicide of a law enforcement officer, six counts of assault of a law enforcement officer, three counts of aggravated assault, one count of persons not to possess firearms and 10 counts of recklessly endangering another person.
Prosecutors moved at the beginning of the hearing to add a misdemeanor harassment charge as a result of Sargent’s alleged behavior toward the medics.
Dotzel set Sargent’s formal arraignment for 10 a.m. April 1 at the Luzerne County Courthouse. Sargent will remain jailed at the county prison until then, as bail has been denied given the severity of his charges.
