Man gets life in 1999 wounding of girlfriend, death of two roommates

<p>A man arrested after a 1999 shootout with police in Massachusetts has been sentenced to life without parole for shooting his girlfriend in the face during an argument and killing her two roommates.</p><p>Jason Pierce, 24, of Austell avoided a possible death sentence by pleading guilty Thursday to malice murder charges.</p><p>Pierce, who also had lived in Massachusetts but was attending college in Atlanta, fatally shot Patrice Lassiter and Monique Brown inside their East Point apartment and seriously injured his girlfriend, Shunae Allen, on Aug. 26, 1999.</p><p>The victims, all three best friends and age 18, had just moved to metro Atlanta from Boston to attend college. Allen has moved back to Massachusetts and has since recovered.</p><p>A week after the shootings, police in Brookline, Mass., stopped a car carrying Pierce and an acquaintance, Sean Taylor, near a mall when gunfire erupted. The men tried to steal another car, but fled on foot after finding their way blocked by police.</p><p>Taylor escaped, but Pierce was apprehended. Authorities caught up with Taylor in late April 2000 when they received a tip he was hiding in Bostons Roxbury neighborhood. Taylor, 21, killed himself with a gunshot to the head after a 90-minute standoff with police.</p>