CASSOPOLIS — A Buchanan man who fired a weapon at several people on Carberry Road in August was sentenced Friday to a minimum of eight years in prison.

Cass County Circuit Court Judge Michael Dodge sentenced Anthony Bostic, 21, to six years in the Michigan Department of Corrections on the charge of assault with intent to do great bodily harm less than murder, and an additional two years for a felony firearms charge.

The court heard the shooting started with a verbal dispute between Bostic and Michael Woods in the front yard of Woods’ residence on Carberry Road in Howard Township Aug. 30. Woods was repairing Bostic’s vehicle and Bostic was upset with some aspect of the repair.

Bostic then retrieved a handgun from his vehicle and began firing at the six people who were in Woods’ yard, discharging all rounds from the gun. No one was hit.

“They were hiding behind trees, they heard bullets ricocheting off the trees,” Dodge said. “If there hadn’t been some cover for them to take we certainly could’ve been looking at a murder charge here.”

Bostic said someone shot at him first, although there was no definitive evidence to support his claim.

“I am glad nobody got hurt,” Bostic said.

Bostic’s prior record includes several violent crimes, including assault and battery in 2005, aggravated assault and attempted armed robbery in 2006, attempted aggravated assault in 2007 and two other felonies for delivering cocaine.

Sentencing guidelines for Bostic on the assault charge were 43 to 76 months. The felony firearms charge carries a mandatory two-year consecutive sentence.

Prosecutor Victor Fitz recommended a sentence at the high end of the guidelines, if not higher.

“This was a very disturbing incident, a dangerous incident, potentially a lethal incident,” Fitz said. “We could very easily have been dealing with multiple funerals.”