The former police chief who oversaw the 2008 gun expo where an 8-year-old boy accidentally shot himself in the face with an Uzi submachine gun was acquitted today after an emotional trial that featured video playback of the boy's last moments.
Edward Fleury broke down in tears as the jury announced he was found not guilty of involuntary manslaughter of Christopher Bizilj on their first full day of deliberations at Hampden Superior Court in Massachusetts. Fleury was also cleared of three charges of furnishing machine guns to minors. He could have faced up to 20 years in prison.
"It was always meant to be an educational event," Fleury explained, when he was greeted by a media crowd on his exit from the court house. Fleury said he will never hold a machine gun shoot again and expressed his "heartfelt sympathy" to the Bizilj family. Fleury is now elligible to reapply for his firearms license and to the police force.
"We are eternally grateful to
for giving Mr. Fleury back his life," said his defense lawyer Rosemary Curran Scapicchio."He had been pretty stoic thoughout the trial, it was such an emotional relief that it was over."
http://abcnews.go.com/US/police-chief-acquitted-uzi-trial-christopher-bizilj/story?id=12615703
Civil liability could be quite another thing of course.
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