Chipperman
Member
http://www.wfsb.com/news/15781268/detail.html
Police: Man Accidentally Shot By 9-Year-Old
Dozens Of Guns Confiscated From Home
POSTED: 9:08 am EDT April 3, 2008
UPDATED: 4:49 pm EDT April 3, 2008
EAST HAMPTON, Conn. -- A man shot in the neck by a 9-year-old faced a judge Thursday.
Police said Joseph Simonelli, 60, of East Hampton, suffered a gunshot wound to the neck on Sunday. He has been treated and released from an area hospital. Police have since deemed the shooting accidental
Simonelli was arrested on Thursday and charged with criminally negligent storage of firearms, risk of injury of a minor, reckless endangerment, giving a false statement and falsely reporting an incident.
He faced a judge at Middletown Superior Court on Thursday afternoon, saying he didn't do anything wrong.
When asked how he would plea, Simonelli responded, "Guilty to what? Being shot?"
Simonelli said later, "I sat on the couch and got shot. That was it."
Investigators said they found 20 firearms in the bedroom of Simonelli's son -- one was loaded and most of them were unsecured.
That discovery came in addition to another 62 rifles, shotguns and machine guns in the rest of the house, in an area that police said was locked.
Simonelli told the court all his guns were locked away.
When asked how the boy accessed the gun used to shoot Simonelli, Simonelli responded, "He broke into the cabinet."
Simonelli then agreed to taking additional safeguards that were not specified.
Simonelli remains held on a $25,000 bond. Police said more arrests are expected in the ongoing investigation.