Lyric Shooter Sentenced to 10 Years in Prison by Federal Judge

The man responsible for firing off a gun inside the Lyric Oxford last year was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison Thursday at the Federal Courthouse in Oxford for being a convicted felon in possession of ammunition.

Desmond Bowen

Desmond Bowen pleaded guilty to the federal firearms offense in November 2018, stemming from his role in a shooting that occurred inside the Lyric Theater in Oxford, Mississippi on April 27, 2018.

Court records show that Bowen attended a party at the Lyric theater in April 2018 on the weekend of the Double Decker Arts Festival when a fight broke out inside the theater. Bowen fired a shot upward, which hit underneath the balcony, ricocheted and hit a patron. Officers collected a .25 auto caliber shell casing from the scene along with an attendee’s video, which depicted Bowen shooting a firearm.

In sentencing Bowen to the maximum possible 10-year sentence along with three years of supervised release, U.S. District Judge Michael P. Mills called Bowen a “risk to the public” and noted the senselessness of Bowen’s acts in discharging the weapon within the crowded Lyric
theater.

The investigation was the culmination of a joint Federal and State investigation into the shooting with the Oxford Police Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

In the months following the incident, the city of Oxford passed an ordinance that requires restaurants serving alcohol to adhere to new security requirements, such as having security cameras, ID scanners and updated emergency response plans and evacuation plans; however, city leaders have publicly said that implementing the new ordinance had been discussed long before the shooting.

Hottytoddy.com staff report