Posted on 12/23/2005 4:54:54 PM PST by radar101
SALEM, Mass. (AP) - A Marine accused of firing a shotgun into a noisy crowd of late-night revelers was arraigned on reduced charges and allowed to return home for the first time since the incident.
Sgt. Daniel B. Cotnoir was initially charged with attempted murder after he fired a single shot out the window of his second-floor apartment Aug. 14.
The case went to a grand jury, which returned the lesser charges of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and discharging a shotgun within 500 feet of a building. He pleaded not guilty to those charges Thursday.
Under previous conditions of his bail, Cotnoir had been forbidden from returning home to his apartment. A judge removed that restriction and Cotnoir posted $5,000 cash bail, allowing him to return to the home he shares with his wife and three daughters.
Cotnoir, 33, has said the shotgun blast was in reaction to a juice bottle hurled through his window minutes after he called police
The fragments struck a 15-year-old girl in the leg and neck and a 20-year-old man in the leg.
Cotnoir was named "Marine of the Year'' by the Marine Corps Times in July. A mortician by trade, he prepared the bodies of dead U.S. soldiers for burial.
(Excerpt) Read more at startribune.com ...
Oh, yeah! Massachusetts-State of Ted Kennedy and Peace Advocate John Kerry, where anyone with a gun should be out of their state.
Well, this oughta be interesting...
If the facts pan out at trial like they've been described here, he probably be convicted. Too bad, because it sounds like a bad scene outside, but ya can't just fire shotguns into a nuisance.
Why did he have to call the cops? I mean, the juice bottle through the window makes it obvious that something untoward was going on outside, but what was it?
How did this guy fire a shotgun into a crowd and hit nobody?
This is a total baloney headline and insinuation in the story, IMO.
No mention of what the crowd was doing and why a juice bottle was thrown through his window.
The AP prints another total hit piece on a Marine.
A Marine accused of firing a shotgun into a noisy crowd of late-night revelers was arraigned on reduced charges and allowed to return home for the first time since the incident.
Did they quiet down?
"You can go a long way with a smile. You can go a lot farther with a smile and a gun."
Al Capone
Why?
C'mon, he's Marine of The Year. That should come with at least a couple of do-overs for indiscriminate gunfire.
Um, well, I think the law saw we can't use deadly force unless our lives are in danger, and I don't remember an addendum "or if the neighbors are being loud".
He hit two people, so if he meant to just safely fire warning shots, he screwed up. And I think warning shots with a shotgun is a country, not urban, option. But that's just me.
Even in Texas, you can't blast people with a shotgun because they're bothering you. You can shoot them in the head with a sniper rifle if they're breaking into your pickup truck at night, but that's something more than a nuisance.
The guy lives above a funeral home, if I recall correctly. He was a military mortician in Iraq. There were a group of local maggots hooting and screeching in the parking lot outside. (Illegal guest workers?) He tried to get them to quiet down, they refused (they gots rights, you know) and the whole thing escalated. This guy did things in Iraq that are the stuff of nightmares, and he deserves a break.
His honors go a long way with me.... I'm not suggesting hanging him. Sounds like the Grand Jury agreed with leniency also in lowering the charges he'd face in the first place.
'xcuse my typos "the law saw" = "the law says"
Yep!
"He hit two people"
The article doesn`t mention this. The article lacks alot of information in my opinion. But its the AP, so it figures.
Hmm. Did the noisy crowd of late-night revelers disperse?
And no one was hurt?
If there is to be a charge against this guy, something along the lines of "Spoiling the Party" might be more appropriate.
Absolutely. This isn't just the usual "wack job from the war" that the media likes to write about. Lawrence Massachusetts is much like Fallujah. I believe this guy had called repeatedly for police support on a number of occasions. He could very well have felt quite threatened - and in Lawrence there is often "no backup".
Cotnoir, 33, has said the shotgun blast was in reaction to a juice bottle hurled through his window minutes after he called police with a complaint about the noise. The shell hit a curb and shattered, and the fragments struck a 15-year-old girl in the leg and neck and a 20-year-old man in the leg.
Now, it's written by someone ignorant to guns, so by 'shell' I don't know if he was firing a slug, or shot, but something hit two people.
Sounds like a rowdy crowd. I don't blame him for being pissed. But it also sounds like kids. "Hey you kids! Quiet down!" is a common enough scene to imagine.
I think the confusing thing in the article may be this: "The fragments struck a 15-year-old girl in the leg and neck and a 20-year-old man in the leg."
It is not specificly stated in the article if these are the fragments of the window from the juice bottle being throw through it , or the bottle itself , or the gunshot "fragments".
So who got hurt? People in the house, or people on the ground?
Stupid AP makes everything a guessing game.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.