TALLMADGE TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WOOD) — A man pleaded guilty Monday in the deadly shooting of a teenager at a party in Tallmadge Township in May, court records show.
Westen Meulenberg, of Jenison, was charged in June with discharging a firearm in a building causing death. He pleaded guilty Monday, according to court records.
The shooting happened May 9 at a house in the area of 2nd Avenue near Lake Michigan Drive NW. According to the sheriff’s office, Meulenberg was in an upstairs bedroom that night, while 19-year-old Connor Lotterman was downstairs. Deputies say Meulenberg obtained a gun and fired multiple rounds through the floor. The bullets traveled through the floor, and one of them hit Lotterman in the head, according to the sheriff’s office.
Deputies: Man charged in deadly shooting of GVSU student at house party
Lotterman was taken to the hospital, where he died. He was a student studying at Grand Valley State University.
Deputies have said they believe alcohol played a role in the shooting. The county medical examiner ruled Lotterman’s death as accidental, but Capt. Jake Sparks with the Ottawa County Sheriff’s Office previously described the shooting itself as “quite intentional.”…