A TEENAGER who ran amok in a US campus-style, lone gunman attack before being tackled to the ground by two members of staff was jailed for five and a half years.
Sandijs Dreimanis said he wanted to make himself a target for armed police after rampaging through his college.
He told police he wanted the people who made him feel bad to be scared.
Dreimanis, 18, fired 16 shots and tried to stab two members of staff who tackled him to the ground on April 26 last year.
Lewes Crown Court heard “The real button was pushed,” as police feared a terror attack or an American college campus, lone gunman style attack.
Hundreds of armed police swarmed Crawley College with snipers taking up positions on nearby roofs.
Sandijs Dreimanis, who was born in Latvia and came to the UK aged ten, tried to deny he had the blank firing gun to cause fear of violence.
He changed his plea in January following psychiatric tests.
His mother watched in court as Dreimanis, wearing a grey prison tracksuit, spoke only to confirm his name.
Dreimanis had been excluded from college the previous December for fighting with another student and was only allowed on campus for one class.
He bought the gun days before for £130 and hid it with the knife on the pathway to the college.
Dreimanis approached a group of students and told them to run before opening fire.
Staff who heard loud bangs and saw him brandishing the pistol dialled 999.
Workshop technician Simon Wilson and college lecturer Peter Davidson rushed towards Dreimanis as students scattered even as he raised his pistol again and fired directly at them.
The pair then tackled him to the ground.
Judge Christine Laing QC described their bravery as outstanding.
Dreimanis told police he felt he had been bullied and discriminated against at college.
“You have a poor ability to regulate your own emotions and your mental state can change rapidly and you contemplate suicide, but you had planned it,” Judge Laing said.
“You bought the gun days before and had hidden it with the knife on the pathway to college.
“You told police someone said something bad to you and got stressed.
“You were trying to be happy but realised no one really cared about you and snapped and wanted to get shot by police.”
The judge said it was not hard to imagine the terror he would have caused.
She said: “I have no doubt at all you knew perfectly well the fear it would engender in all those students.
“I am prepared to accept your ultimate aim was to get yourself shot by police but there is no doubt you got satisfaction from causing that amount of fear.
“You told police you wanted to scare those who you deemed had been mean to you.”
Richard Furlong for the defence described Dreimanis as a young man at the end of his tether.
“This is an unfortunate and sad young man who made a serious attempt to end his own life in the most grotesque and public way possible,” he said.
Dreimanis was described as having an emotionally unstable personality disorder.
He admitted possession of a firearm with intent to cause fear, two counts of ABH and possession of a knife on school premises.
He was sentenced to three years and nine months in a young offenders institution for the firearms offence, 12 months, six months and 21 months for the other three charges to be concurrent and consecutive to count one.
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