Man injured in shooting near Edgewood Shopping Center sentenced to time served

LINCOLN, Neb. (KOLN) – A man who was injured in a shooting near the Edgewood Shopping Center back in 2021 was sentenced Monday.

A federal judge sentenced Christopher Duncan to time served after he entered a guilty plea for possession of controlled substances with the intent to distribute and possession of firearms in furtherance of a drug trafficking offense.

Duncan will begin a three-year term of supervised release.

Duncan pled guilty as part of a plea deal back in 2022. As part of the agreement, Duncan agreed to forfeit $3,929.52 found at the scene.

The sentencing stems from an Aug. 2, 2021, shooting near the Edgewood Shopping Center just north of 56th Street and Nebraska Parkway. The shooting left Duncan, who was 18 years old at the time, and Jayden Prentice injured. They both spent a month in the hospital.

During the investigation, authorities found that a group of people, including Buongkhoy Wal and Xavier Gary, arranged to purchase marijuana from Duncan, Prentice and Riley Mills. The planned purchase was instead an alleged ruse for a robbery.

The U.S. Attorney said during the drug purchase, Wal and an unknown person were counting the money in Duncan’s vehicle when the unknown person shot Prentice in the face. Mills and the unknown person were fighting over the gun when several more gunfire erupted just outside the car.

Wal, the unknown person and the others in their group fled the scene and dropped a .45 caliber handgun.

According to a ballistics reports, the .45 caliber handgun was used to shoot Prentice, and it fired at least one of the shots that struck Duncan. A DNA profile also found a mixture of DNA from three people, with Wal and Gary both being contributors.

On July 31, 2023, Wal pled guilty to discharging a firearm during a drug trafficking crime and was sentenced to 13 years in prison. He was also given a five-year term of supervised release once he completes his sentence.

On March 21, 2023, Gary pled guilty to attempted possession of marijuana with the intent to distribute.

Prentice and Mills each pled guilty to possession of controlled substances with the intent to distribute and possession of firearms in furtherance of a drug trafficking offense.

Mills was sentenced to more than seven and a half years in prison followed by a three-year term of supervised release, and Prentice was sentenced to six years in prison and a three-year term of supervised release.

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