Kasper Martin, a 17-year-old White/Caucasian male from Johnstown, Pennsylvania, died on November 9, 2016, after a shooting in the Hornerstown section of the city. He had been a student in the Greater Johnstown School District, and his obituary described him as a Johnstown senior who was born in Washington, D.C., and had family ties through his parents, siblings and grandparents. The violence unfolded on Pine Street, where police said they received reports of gunfire around 9 p.m. that night.
Early accounts from authorities described a chaotic confrontation involving multiple people. Investigators said Martin went to the 800 block of Pine Street with five friends, and witnesses told police that the groups arrived in two vehicles. According to the criminal complaint summarized by police, Martin and Reginald Harris Jr. began fighting, and within about 10 seconds shots were fired. As people scattered from the area, Martin was seen lying on the sidewalk. Authorities later said an argument between a group of people had escalated into gunfire near a Ford Taurus.
Martin was not taken directly from Pine Street to the hospital. Investigators said people from his group first drove him to Richland, where he was transferred into another vehicle before being taken to Windber Medical Center. He was pronounced dead at the hospital. The coroner determined that he died from a gunshot wound to the abdomen, also described in reports as a wound to the stomach.
In the days after the shooting, Johnstown police identified Reginald Harris Jr., then 25, as the suspect. Police said Harris, of Johnstown, faced homicide charges, along with aggravated assault, robbery, carrying a firearm without a license and other charges. An arrest warrant was issued while Harris was still at large, and he was taken into custody the following night. Authorities said he was accused of firing the shot that killed Martin.
The case later moved toward a plea rather than a trial on the original homicide accusation. In September 2017, Harris entered a plea agreement in which he pleaded guilty to possession of a firearm by a felon and involuntary manslaughter. At sentencing in December 2017, Harris, then 26, received a minimum prison sentence of six years and three months. His attorney said the sentence included five to 10 years for the firearm possession charge and 15 months for involuntary manslaughter, to be served consecutively.
By the time of sentencing, Harris’s attorney described the shooting as the result of a dispute over money. The defense account said Martin arranged to meet Harris and arrived with several friends, and that Martin and his friends attacked Harris before Harris fired several rounds in self-defense, one of which struck Martin. The public reports available online do not identify any additional person as being arrested, charged, tried or convicted in Martin’s death.
