Justice is being served for this too-young victim of senselessness. Today, three men, including a small town's police chief, were indicted on charges of involuntary manslaughter.
Three men, including a small-town police chief, were indicted Thursday on involuntary manslaughter counts in the gun-fair death of an 8-year-old who accidentally shot himself in the head with an Uzi that a prosecutor said he never should have been allowed to handle.The club where the fair was held also was charged. The fair had promised shooters would have certified instructors in an advertisement, but District Attorney William Bennett said the child, Christopher Bizilj, was supervised by an uncertified 15-year-old boy.
You read that right. An 8 year old firing an automatic weapon was being supervised by a 15 year old, not a certified instructor as originally reported.
Pelham Police Chief Edward Fleury was charged because he owns the sponsor of the gun fair, COP Firearms & Training. Two men who brought the automatic weapon to the show, Carl Guiffre of Hartford, Conn., and Domenico Spano, of New Milford, Conn., also were indicted.An involuntary manslaughter conviction carries a maximum 20-year prison sentence and $1,000 fine. The term could be five years or less for someone with no prior convictions.
Fleury and the club also were indicted on four counts each of furnishing a machine gun to a minor. A conviction on each count is punishable by up to 10 years in prison, up to $10,000 in fines and the loss of a firearms license for at least 10 years.
Bennett said prosecutors know of at least four children, including Christopher, who fired automatic weapons at the fair. He added that Fleury had wrongly assured Guiffre and Spano that it was legal for children to use the Uzi under Massachusetts law.
"A Micro Uzi is made by and for the Israeli Armed Forces and is intended to meet the operational needs of Israeli Special Forces," Bennett said, noting that the weapon has a rate of fire of 20 to 25 rounds per second. "It is not a hunting weapon."
The district attorney is sparing no sympathy for these men. Justice will eventually be done for this young boy, but I personally happen to feel that the boy's father, standing nearby when the accident happened, is equally culpable in this crime, especially considering it was his consent that allowed his son to fire the weapon.
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