Dorchester teen gets two years for bringing loaded handgun to school

A Dorchester teen was sentenced to more than two years in jail for bringing a loaded handgun into school.

Walter West, 18, a student at Jeremiah E. Burke High School, traveled to English High School in Jamaica Plain on Nov. 20, 2008 with the handgun in his backpack.

Police responded to the scene after an altercation broke out inside the building. They took West into custody after a struggle and it was when they searched the backpack that they found the gun.

"We see the aftermath of gun violence too often in Boston," Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said. "This could have been the prelude. It doesn't take much imagination to consider what could have happened to another student if this armed gunman had found a target before being intercepted."

The trial saw testimony from nine separate witnesses. Surveillance from several school cameras were also submitted as evidence.