HENRICO COUNTY, Va. (WTVR) – Police identified the person shot and killed in Henrico Saturday afternoon as 19-year-old Paul Gower of Richmond.
Gower was killed about along the 5700 block of Pony Farm Drive in Central Henrico.
Police arrested Andrew Arthur Pratt, 22, for the shooting. Pratt is charged with 2nd Degree Murder and Use of a Firearm in the Commission of a Felony.
As his pregnant wife sobbed a few feet away, Andrew Arthur Pratt explained that he was scared.
“I panicked,” he said, describing to a Henrico County Circuit Court judge on Tuesday how his anger and fear overwhelmed him when a former friend, 19-year-old Paul Gower, unexpectedly appeared at his apartment doorway.
Gower, whom Pratt suspected of having a romantic relationship with his future bride, apparently was just as scared. He exited the apartment on Pony Farm Drive and hustled down the hallway only to be shot in the buttocks by Pratt, who pulled out a .40-caliber handgun, getting off two shots at his fleeing adversary, one of which missed.
“It was not a thought-out process,” Pratt, 23, said. Earlier that June 15 morning last year, Gower and Pratt’s then-girlfriend had been caught on a video camera stealing cellphones from a Target Store. It was the girlfriend’s birthday.
He sentenced Pratt to 20 years in prison, just below the high end of sentencing guidelines. The baby is due in April.
The confrontation occurred shortly before 5 p.m. with Pratt calling 911 to report the shooting.
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