Bryan Oliver, Taft Union High School shooting suspect, will be charged as an adult

BAKERSFIELD, Cailf. - District attorney Lisa Green said that Bryan Oliver, the teen accused in the Taft Union High School shooting will be charged as an adult.

Oliver is being accused of two counts of attempted murder, two counts of assault with a deadly weapon and one count of assault with a firearm.

If convicted, he faces 25 years to life.

Oliver is accused of trying to kill Bowe Cleveland and Jacob Nichols in a shooting at Taft Union High School on Thursday.

"I don't want to shoot you," he told the popular teacher, Ryan Heber, who was trying to coax the teen into giving up the shotgun he still held.

Recounting Oliver's words, Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood said the confrontation was enough of a distraction to give 28 students time to escape their classroom Thursday at Taft High School.

The violence came just minutes after administrators had announced new lockdown safety procedures prompted by the Newtown, Conn., school massacre.

"Just 10 minutes before it happened our teachers were giving us protocol because of what happened in Connecticut," said student Oscar Nuno, who was across campus from the science building when an announcer on the speaker system said the school was under lockdown "and it was not a drill."

Cleveland, who classmates said played football last year for the Taft Wildcats, was in critical but stable condition at a Kern County hospital Thursday night. He was expected to undergo surgery on Friday.

Oliver surrendered his shotgun to Heber and campus supervisor Kim Lee Fields. His pockets were stuffed with more ammunition, Youngblood said.