Western Michigan man is sentenced to a year in jail for New Year’s shooting that killed 2

PAW PAW, Mich. (AP) — A western Michigan man was sentenced Monday to a year in jail and three years of probation after pleading guilty in a January shooting that killed two men at a New Year’s party.

Christopher Alan Toppenberg of Lawrence Township pleaded guilty last month in 36th Circuit Court in Paw Paw to a charge of discharging a firearm under the influence of liquor or a controlled substance and causing death.

He was given credit for 167 days already served, news outlets reported.

In exchange for his plea, prosecutors dropped two counts of second-degree murder and two counts of using a firearm during the commission of a felony. Toppenberg was charged days after the shooting.

Police said Toppenberg was with a group of people celebrating New Year’s in a wooded area shortly after midnight Jan. 1, when he got out an AR-15 rifle and fired 20 to 25 rounds horizontally in the direction of two men who were setting off fireworks about 100 feet (30 meters) away.

Jason McCreary, 40, of Sutter Creek, California, died at the scene, and David Reed, 35, of Waverly Township, died at a hospital.

The shooting occurred in Lawrence Township, about 28 miles (45 kilometers) southwest of Kalamazoo in Van Buren County.