He ran event where boy, 8, lost control of machine gun
 | The gun fair was organized by a company owned by the defendant, former Pelham police chief Edward Fleury. |
The emotionally wracked trial of a former Pelham police chief charged in connection with the accidental shooting death of an 8-year-old boy at a gun fair came to an end yesterday with a jury acquitting Edward Fleury, who cried at the verdict.
Fleury, 53, was found not guilty of involuntary manslaughter and multiple counts of furnishing a machine gun to a minor. Christopher Bizilj of Ashford, Conn., lost control of an Uzi submachine gun and shot himself in the head in front of shocked onlookers that included his father and brother. The jurors had viewed chilling video footage of the youth’s death, which occurred in October 2008, before they rendered their verdict.
Several member’s of Fleury’s family embraced him after the verdict was announced in Hampden Superior Court in Springfield, said his lawyer, Rosemary C. Scapicchio of Boston.
“He’s just elated to be able to have a chance to put his life back together,’’ Scapicchio said in a phone interview.
Fleury said he regretted holding the machine gun shoot and will never do it again.
“I want to express my heartfelt sympathy to the Bizilj family,’’ Fleury said in a courthouse hallway to TV cameras and a throng of reporters. “It was always meant to be an educational event for people, and it’s unfortunate this terrible accident happened.’’
He said his arrest and the trial were devastating and that he would rather be “dropped into hell than go through this again.’’
His wife, Jacalyn, said: “I’m glad to have my husband back. He’s an innocent man.’’
Prosecutors argued that Fleury was criminally reckless because he allowed children to illegally shoot machine guns under the supervision of a firing range officer who was 15 at the time and who lacked proper licensing and training.
Scapicchio, however, argued that the boy’s father, Dr. Charles Bizilj, signed a waiver acknowledging the risks involved in letting his son shoot, including death, and that the event had occurred for several years without any problems.
“Our defense was that this was a tragic accident,’’ she said.
The charges against Fleury carried a combined sentence of up to 50 years in prison.
Christopher Bizilj died when the Uzi submachine gun he fired suddenly tilted upward and then backward in his small hands and a bullet pierced his head.
The fair was held at the Westfield Sportsman’s Club in Westfield and was organized by a company that Fleury owned.
Last week, jurors gasped as they watched a 15-second video clip of the boy’s death; his father had been filming his turn with the gun. Prosecutors stopped the video at the precise instant when the child remained standing but mortally wounded, sparing the jury the image of watching his body fall.Continued...
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