CASSOPOLIS — What goes up must come down.

So when 21-year-old Justin Young of Dowagiac discharged 21 shots from an assault rifle into the air in a Cassopolis parking lot, he was potentially endangering the lives of anyone unlucky enough to be in the spot where those bullets fell.

“For at least a brief moment, the defendant turned Cassopolis into a warzone,” said prosecutor Victor Fitz during Young’s sentencing Friday at Cass County Circuit Court.

Judge Michael Dodge sentenced Young to 365 days in Cass County Jail with credit for 253 days served on felony accounts of carrying a concealed weapon, possessing a loaded firearm in a vehicle and possessing a firearm as a felon. Young pleaded guilty as a habitual third offender in April, agreeing to a one-year jail stint.

“I am giving you one last opportunity to avoid what will no doubt be a substantial prison term,” Dodge said.

On Aug. 25 at around 11 p.m. a friend drove Young to Graham St. Apartments in Cassopolis. Young was carrying a loaded assault rifle at the time. When he arrived at the apartments he fired 21 bullets into the air.

Police obtained a warrant to search Young’s residence in Dowagiac and found an assault rifle, .22 caliber revolver with four live rounds in cylinder, a box of 1,000 rounds for an assault rifle and six magazines for an assault rifle, four filled with ammo and two empty.

“You just didn’t have any business having this kind of an arsenal,” Dodge said. “This ammunition, 7.6 caliber, is certainly very dangerous stuff. It is the kind of thing that is used in war to kill lots of people.”

Young apologized and said he was grateful no one was injured by his actions.

“This is the kind of situation that results in innocent people getting killed … you never know what kind of damage this could’ve caused,” Dodge said.