California School Shooting: Alleged gunman, Bryan Oliver, pleads not guilty to attempted murder

(CBS/AP) FRESNO, Calif. - A 16-year-old Taft high school student accused of shooting one classmate with a shotgun and trying to target another pleaded not guilty Monday in the attack.

Bryan Oliver was charged as an adult with two counts of premeditated attempted murder and three counts of assault with a firearm in Thursday's assault at Taft Union High School that left another 16-year-old wounded.

"It was just the factors of the case," said Mark Pafford, the chief deputy district attorney of Kern County, about the decision to charge Oliver as an adult. "The severity of the actions, the injuries to the victim, that a firearm was used. Those are the things we considered."

The potential penalty for just one count of premeditated attempted murder with a firearm is 32 years to life, Pafford said. If he had been charged as a juvenile and convicted, he would be held until his 23rd birthday.

Oliver had been bullied by the two classmates he allegedly targeted, according to a witness who knows the teen.

"They called him a `ginger' and said gingers don't have souls," said Morgan Alldredge, a friend of both Oliver and one of the targets, who was in the classroom during the shooting. "I was his friend. I don't know why people picked on him. He was misunderstood."

Complete coverage of the California School Shooting on Crimesider