Must be a friend of the cop - I don't think I have EVER seen a report of a police officer or any other official saying, "he didn't mean to hurt anyone". Normally they make mountains out of molehills and this time they are not taking what SHOULD be a very, very serious offense - seriously. Shooting his gun across the road? What the heck was he thinking? He's incredibly lucky he did not hit one of the children or the driver - would we have called it something different then?

A couple of years ago an old man (sorry, can't remember his name), pillar in his community, never did anything wrong in his life, caused an accident because he was in a hurry to get to work. They acted like he was the most reckless, horrible individual on the planet. Who among us hasn't taken their eyes off the road, or accidently cut someone off because they were in our blind spot? People lined up for a mile to speak on the man's behalf because he was such a wonderful person - yet Lancaster County through the book at him and the media ostracized him before he ever went to trial.

This time - it looks like their priming the community and the media to NOT make a big deal out of this, which in my opinion is WAY worse, since he knowingly broke rules of using a gun.

Unbelievable!

I ditto your "unbelievable." His behavior sounds very strange; you'd at least think he would be somewhere being evaluated before being let out on the street again. We always talk about the 'warning signs' and how they are missed and then worse things happen. After reading this, how many more warning signs do the police need before they remove someone from the street and their gun before something worse happens?

I have been shaking my head wondering what is going on here since I heard this story. The comments from the police left me with my mouth hanging open. The guy was shooting his gun and missed his target ... We certainly are very fortunate this did not have greater consequences. His gun should be taken until he can prove he has a clue how to use it safely. Was the guy drinking way too much?? I'm certainly feeling like we don't know the whole story here.

As I said in the first thread on this incident, why is this guy only charged with simple assault and the other less minor offenses? This guy should have been charged with Agg. Assault and taken before a DJ and made to post bail. You don't shoot across a road and you sure don't shoot a gun where other homes and people are. This guy needs a little prison time to wake him up.

I agree with you on this one GroundPounder, what an idiot, he should of been charged with discharging a firearm within the city of East Petersburg regardless of the size of the city, and especially seeing that there is a lot of house around where this guy lives, and then they say he was firing at a junction box across the street on a pole, who's this junction box belong too.

Now if the box is PP&l's man what was this guy thinking, was he trying to black out the neighborhood or what, he aslo should of been charged with attempted destruction of private property. yes I say the guy got off easy for his nonsense, a little to easy and he should have his guns taken away from him permanently.

I'm just glad to hear the infant was fine and not more seriously hurt by this morons actions.