Gun club, police chief, 2 others indicted in 8 yr olds death www.privateofficer.com

Gun club, police chief, 2 others indicted in 8 yr olds death http://www.privateofficer.com

Hampden County MA. Dec 4 2008
hartfordcourant.com

A Massachusetts gun club where an Ashford, Conn., boy fatally shot himself with an Uzi machine gun, a Massachusetts police chief who ran the event and two Connecticut men have been indicted on manslaughter charges in connection with the boy’s death.

Christopher K. Bizilj, 8, died Oct. 26 after shooting himself during what was billed as a “Machine Gun Shoot & Firearms Expo” at the Westfield Sportsmen’s Club in Massachusetts.

Christopher, a third-grader at Ashford School, was firing a 9mm, Micro Uzi machine gun when he lost control of the weapon and suffered a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.

A grand jury in Hampden County, Mass. indicted Edward B. Fleury, who is chief of police in Pelham, Mass., and the owner of COP Firearms & Training, a business that co-sponsored the machine gun shoot with the gun club, on one count of involuntary manslaughter and four counts of furnishing a machine gun to person under 18.

The gun club was also indicted on the same charges.

Carl Guiffre of Hartford and Domenico Spano of New Milford were each indicted on a single count of involuntary manslaughter.

Their role in the incident was not explained in a statement issued by Hampden County District Attorney William M. Bennett’s office.

A spokesman for Bennett declined to release further information.Massachusetts law prohibits the furnishing of a machine gun to any person under 18, according to the statement from Bennett’s office.

“There is no exception that would allow a machine gun to be furnished to an 8-year-old, with or without parental consent,” the statement reads.

The DA noted that the weapon Christopher fired is “made by and for the Israeli Armed Forces and is intended to meet the operational needs of Israeli Special Forces.

It is not a hunting weapon. It has a rate of fire of 1,700 rounds per minute.”

Arraignments for those charged have not been set.

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8 Year old dies from accidental shooting at gun show www.privateoffficer.com

8 Year old dies from accidental shooting at gun show http://www.privateoffficer.com

WESTFIELD, Mass.OCT 27 2008 – Authorities are investigating the shooting death of an 8-year-old boy who died after accidentally shooting himself in the head while firing an Uzi submachine gun under adult supervision at a gun fair.

Police officials said that the boy lost control of the weapon while firing it Sunday at the Machine Gun Shoot and Firearms Expo at the Westfield Sportsman’s Club.
Police Lt. Lawrence Valliere said that the boy was being properly supervised and that it appears to have been a tragic accident. Police identified the child Monday as Christopher Bizilj of Ashford, Conn.

Christopher was with a certified instructor and “was shooting the weapon down range when the force of the weapon made it travel up and back toward his head, where he suffered the injury,” a police statement said.

Police called it a “self-inflicted accidental shooting.”The boy was taken to Baystate Medical Center where he died.

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