A man who opened fire outside a Pennsylvania Walmart appeared in court with a tattoo of tombstones bearing his intended victims’ names before being sentenced to life on Thursday.
WNEP reported that Scott Sargent, 33, will spend 179 to 358 years in prison for the October 2015 shooting which occurred in the parking lot of a Wilkes-Barre Walmart. During the incident, Sargent shot at employees in a service garage and exchanged gunfire with police–nearly shooting an officer in the head.
Not only did Sargent refuse to apologize at sentencing, but, as The Standard-Speaker reported, he showed off a prison tattoo which depicted a skeleton looking over a graveyard featuring five tombstones with the names of the officers he tried to kill.
Sargent reportedly got the prison tattoo done shortly after a jury convicted him of attempted murder in October. Prosecutor Jarrett Ferentino said they just learned about the unsettling ink last week and that they had investigators photograph it so it could be mentioned during sentencing, WNEP reported.
“I thought the tattoo is deplorable,” Ferentino opined after the hearing. “I think it’s disrespectful, but although Mr. Sargent didn’t speak today, it speaks volumes about who he is and what his intentions were that day.”
However, Wilkes-Barre Township Police Officer Brian Bouton, who was nearly shot by Sargent on that fateful day, called the tattoo a disgrace but offered a different take on the man’s tattoo.
“The rest of his life he has to look at our names on his arm and remind him that he’s incarcerated and doesn’t have the freedom and that he failed his mission,” he said.
[Featured Image: Scott Sargent/ WNEP video screenshot]