Student who threatened Bonner-Prendie to be deported
PHILADELPHIA >> An 18-year-old Taiwanese foreign exchange student who said he was “kidding” when he threatened a mass shooting at Monsignor Bonner & Archbishop Prendergast Catholic High School earlier this year was given time served for illegally possessing ammunition while in the United States on a nonimmigrant visa and handed over to immigration officials who will process his removal from the country.
“It’s a relief, it’s a good result, it’s a fair result, it’s an appropriate result,” said defense attorney Robert Keller outside the federal courthouse on Market Street Monday afternoon. “He’s been in jail now for more than five months. It’s been a very difficult lesson for him, but a lesson that has been learned.”
An-Tso “Edward” Sun pleaded guilty to the single charge in August before U.S. District Judge Nitza I. Quiñones Alejandro of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania after waiving his right to an indictment by grand jury.
Sun had warned a friend at the end of the school day March 26 not to come to school May 1, saying he was going to “come here armed and shoot up the school.” He then added, “Just kidding.”
The friend told officials at the school, who in turn notified Upper Darby police. Law enforcement discovered a variety of weapons and more than 1,600 bullets Sun had stockpiled at his host family’s home on the 200 block of LeCarra Drive.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Sarah Wolfe noted in August that Sun had made multiple trips to firing ranges since October 2017, where he purchased and fired ammunition from semiautomatic weapons and shotguns. Wolfe said Sun had also bought hundreds of rounds of various ammunition types at a time from out-of-state vendors over the Internet within a matter of months and had them delivered to his host family’s home in Upper Darby.
Sun had also purchased ancillary firearms components, including two AR-style magazines, two AK-style magazines and handgun parts that could be assembled into a functioning 9 mm handgun. Police also seized a “ballistic suit” including a vest, jacket and pants, a cross bow and other accessories and equipment.
Sun entered an open guilty plea to terroristic threats in Delaware County Common Pleas Court in June and was sentenced to four to 23 months in the county prison. Common Pleas Judge Barry C. Dozor said he was granting Sun immediate parole at that time so as not to hinder deportation proceedings. Sun has been in federal custody ever since.
Keller said Sun had planned to enter Temple University and had hopes of joining law enforcement. He has instead been accepted to a Taiwanese school for the performing arts, where he will begin classes following deportation.
Keller said that process would likely take between four and six weeks, after which Sun will not be allowed to re-enter the country. His parents, Taiwanese opera singer Di Ying and actor Sun Peng, will remain in the country until his removal, said Keller. He noted the case had drawn national attention in Taiwan due to his parents’ prominence.
Peng spoke to the judge at Monday’s sentencing hearing through an interpreter and apologized for his son’s actions. Peng said he had visited Sun in prison once a week since his arrest and that he has expressed remorse from the start.
“I hope that the court can give my family a chance to start again,” Peng said through the interpreter.
Also speaking on Sun’s behalf was a cousin who had also studied in the United States and fellow student Gerald Smith, who had known Sun approximately five or six months before his arrest.
Smith said Sun was well liked and had many friends, but was somewhat oblivious. He said he had never felt unsafe around Sun, who had shown him his incomplete gun, and that he felt sad for him when he was arrested.
“He’s young, I feel like he’s still a kid,” said Smith. “Please consider that, your honor.”
Sun also apologized to the court for the resources expended in his arrest and conviction, and to his family for any shame and embarrassment he might have caused them.
“I do not consider myself above the law and I should have chosen my words more wisely,” he said.
Sun’s threat came just one month after a devastating school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., where 17 students and staff members were killed.
Judge Quiñones Alejandro noted the maximum penalty for the possession charge was 10 years imprisonment, a $250,000 fine and three years’ supervised release. She denied a motion from defense attorney Caroline A. Goldner Cinquanto for a downward departure from the guideline range of two years to 30 months in prison.
Wolfe and the defense agreed that a sentencing enhancement should not apply, though the judge disagreed. Wolfe also said she believed that the prior Delaware County conviction should be taken into consideration and sentencing should be within the guidelines.
Wolfe noted Sun had “a preoccupation” with firearms and the nature of the offense was inherently dangerous when combined with the terroristic threats conviction. She said the court also needs to send the message to the public and to visitors that laws are important and need to be followed.
Cinquanto argued that her client was an avid fan of sport shooting, had a VIP membership at the gun range, and that the ammunition in question was for that activity.
While the judge said the seized ammunition would already have been spent if it was for sport, Cinquanto argued ammunition at the range can be expensive and many people simply buy ammo beforehand online, as Sun had.
“I think it’s time for him to go home,” Cinquanto said. “I think there’s been enough punishment for this crime.”
In handing down her sentence, the judge said she believed Sun’s youthfulness and ignorance about social customs likely contributed to his actions, but advised him to learn from this experience.
“You need to grow up,” she said. “You need to understand that there are consequences to everything that we do. There are good consequences and there are bad consequences. This one, unfortunately, was a very bad consequence for you.”
Sun, handcuffed and wearing a green prison jumpsuit, smiled broadly at supporters as he was led out of the courtroom.
Wolfe said following the hearing that she understood the judge’s point of view and respected the court’s decision. She expects the government will not challenge the ruling, but agreed there is some solace in the knowledge that Sun would not return to the country after his removal.
“The threat that he made he characterized as a joke and there’s nothing funny about shooting up a school,” said Wolfe. “The court explained it’s rational, given the defendant’s age, his youthfulness, his unfamiliarity with our culture and I understand that … It’s not lost on the government that this is a young individual and he has spent almost six months incarcerated. As part of his sentence he will be removed from the country and never be allowed to return, so that is a really important part of his sentence.”