Suspect charged in shooting that injured BYU football signee

A suspect was arrested Monday after a former Coppell High School football star and Brigham Young University signee was injured Sunday in a shooting.

The shooting happened around 6 p.m. at Coppell Middle School East on Mockingbird Lane.

Charles West and several others were playing basketball when they said a man walked up and started shooting. West, an 18-year-old running back, was hit in the upper left arm. He was treated at the hospital and released.

Police said on Monday that the shooting suspect had been positively identified by West in a photo lineup. The suspect, whom police have identified as 18-year-old Montay Kentral Howard, was subsequently taken into custody on Monday afternoon.

He has been charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

“Right now our charges are going to be aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, but it's going to depend on Dallas County if they want to enhance it to attempted murder and do the enhancement for having a weapon on school ground,” said Sgt. Sammy Lujan, Coppell police.

Police didn’t say if West was the intended target.

West answered the door Monday at the Coppell home of his parents shirtless and a bandage on his left arm. He said he had nothing to say about Sunday's shooting or why he may have been targeted.

West was in the news last February when he was arrested and accused of sexually assaulting a woman at knifepoint at his Coppell home. The woman told police he hired her to fulfill a fetish service, the arrest warrant affidavit said.

Days after the alleged incident, he signed a letter of intent to play football at BYU. The university did not release a statement following West’s arrest.