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Caleb Sharpe pleaded guilty on Thursday to killing one student and injuring another three classmates during a 2017 shooting at Freeman High School in Washington state.
Sharpe, 20, was set to go to trial beginning on January 18 but entered a guilty plea for one count of premeditated murder, three counts of attempted murder, and several counts of second-degree assault.
"The plea agreement closes this chapter of the tragedy and avoids having to experience the trauma all over again," said officials at Freeman High School in an email.
On September 13 then 15-year-old Sharpe brought a duffle bag to school containing an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle, a handgun and several boxes of .223 ammunition.
According to the court documents Sharpe went to the second-floor hallway where fellow 15-year-old classmate Sam Strahan approached him and said the gun was going to get him in trouble.
"I always knew you were going to shoot up the school," Strahan told Sharpe the according to the court documents.
Sharpe then proceeded to shoot and kill Strahan after he pulled out a handgun from under his jacket. He shot him once in the stomach and then again in the face.
After his encounter with Strahan, Sharpe continued his rampage down the hallway and randomly shot and injured three more students.
Sharpe could receive a maximum sentence of life in prison, but his defense attorneys are asking for 20 years given his age at the time of the shooting.
Sharpe entered his plea Thursday morning in a courtroom packed with family members and law enforcement. Ami Strahan, whose son was killed in the shooting, sat in the front row, The Spokesman-Review reported.
Sharpe will be sentenced on January 18 in Spokane County Superior Court.
At school, when Sharpe headed straight to a second-floor hallway, he dropped the duffel bag and removed the assault rifle. He started to load the gun, which jammed, and then Strahan approached him.
After firing into the crowd, Sharpe threw the handgun down. At this point, he was confronted by custodian Joe Bowen. Sharpe raised his hands above his head in surrender as Bowen approached.
The assault charges cover students who were in the vicinity of the shootings at the rural high school south of Spokane but were not injured.
The judge was originally set to hear arguments Thursday on whether the trial should be moved to another county, as the defense believed media coverage of the case would impact their ability to select a fair and impartial jury.
Freeman High School officials said in an emailed statement they were relieved the case had been settled.
"This has been a very difficult four years to endure for our Freeman community, especially for the families of the victims," the statement said.
Superior Court Judge Michael Price had recently rebuffed Sharpe's defense team from offering a diminished capacity or insanity defense. Price also ruled that Sharpe would be tried as an adult, despite being a juvenile when he went to school armed with an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle and a .32-caliber handgun.
Sharpe has remained in the Spokane County Jail since his arrest.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
