WINSTON-SALEM (AP) — A 15-year-old charged in the shooting death of a classmate at a North Carolina high school last month will remain held without bond.

Judge Athena Brooks denied a motion to release Maurice Evans Jr. on bond Thursday, news outlets report. Evans is charged with murder in the Sept. 1 shooting death of William Miller Jr. at Mount Tabor High School in Winston-Salem.

District Attorney Jim O’Neill asked the judge that the request for bond be denied, citing the community and Evans himself were safer with him in custody. Video of the confrontation shows Evans shooting Miller between classes, as Miller stood within feet of a teacher, O’Neill said.

Defense attorney J.D. Byers told the judge that Evans, Miller and others had been in an ongoing rift and Evans was afraid to return to school. After Evans was shot in June, an image of him in the intensive care unit appeared on social media and Byers said Miller commented that he was “going to finish the job.”

While Byers stressed that Evans had every reason to fear for his life, O’Neill called the shooting targeted and egregious.