Crystal
02-18-2005, 10:07 AM
Details emerge in mall shooting
Robert Bonelli Jr. bought ammo at Wal-Mart, wrote suicide notes and had considered a school as his target, DA says
By BRUCE A. SCRUTON, Staff writer
First published: Thursday, February 17, 2005
ULSTER -- In the hours before he shot up the Hudson Valley Mall, Robert Bonelli Jr. bought ammunition at a nearby Wal-Mart, drove to a park and wrote suicide notes as he loaded 60 rounds for his assault rifle, officials said Wednesday.
The possibility also exists that the 25-year-old Saugerties man considered a school as his target. Police found material at his home related to the 1999 Columbine High School shooting, and Bonelli, when questioned by police, said if he had not gone to the mall on Sunday afternoon he planned to visit a mid-Hudson Valley school on Monday.
"There is no cause at this time to believe that any schools are in jeopardy," Ulster County District Attorney Donald Williams said Wednesday. "We have no information that there was any conspiracy."
Sworn statements have been taken from nearly 70 witnesses who were at the mall shortly after 3 p.m. when Bonelli arrived at the Best Buy store and allegedly opened fire. Two men were wounded in the shooting. The district attorney said state law might prevent a prosecution for attempted murder, which requires proof of intent to cause a death. But, he said, first-degree assault, which involves serious injury, is the same level felony. Both are punishable by up to 25 years in prison.
"We take information to the grand jury, and they screen the charges," Williams said. "We don't plea bargain in this office."
The district attorney said it looks like Bonelli never brought the weapon to his shoulder to take aim. Williams said most of the shots were fired into the floor or at the ceiling and even when he brought the rifle level at his hip: "He shot at TVs, or sprayed a blank wall."
"It appears he had opportunities to fire into people, but bypassed them all," the district attorney said.
Williams discounted "suicide-by-cop" theories, noting that there are police stations nearby. "He could have gone there and stood in the parking lot," he said.
He also expressed doubt that the suspect could be found insane. "Yes, normal people don't go into a mall and fire off 60 rounds," Williams said. "It might be a cry for help, but there's a dramatic distance between needing help and crying out and placing peoples' lives in jeopardy."
At Bonelli's home, police also seized a videotape, made last summer, of him and two friends making, then detonating, pipe bombs using smokeless powder, PVC pipe and fuses. The video showed them using an AK-47 look-alike rifle.
The weapon Bonelli fired on Sunday was an American-made copy of that Soviet-era assault weapon, a Hesse Model 47 that was apparently bought at a local gun show within the past two years, according to Williams. The gun can use what's commonly known as a "banana clip," a magazine that holds 30 rounds. But possession of such a "large capacity ammunition feeding device" is prohibited by state law, if the magazine is made after 1994. Police are investigating where Bonelli obtained the clip.
On Wednesday, ammunition, including 7.62 mm shells, could be seen on an open and unlocked shelf under a counter in the sporting goods section of the Wal-Mart store adjacent to the Hudson Valley Mall. The 60 rounds of ammunition cost less than $20. Sunday's mayhem started outside the Best Buy where Bonelli allegedly fired three times at the front door in the parking lot off Route 9W.
One of the shots went through the door, ricocheted and struck Steven Silk, 56, of Kingston in the hand and leg. Bonelli allegedly entered the store and walked down an aisle, emptying one magazine. He paused to reload with the second 30-round magazine and moved out to the main corridor of the mall. People were scattering, but the second victim, Pvt. Thomas Haire, 20, and another soldier, who were operating an Army National Guard recruiting booth, apparently walked toward the shooting.
Williams said the two were still at a distance when Bonelli fired one round, hitting Haire in the knee. Haire, of nearby Pine Plains, is being treated at Albany Medical Center Hospital.
With the second magazine empty, Bonelli placed the gun on the floor and tried to surrender to a mall maintenance man when he was tackled by two employees of Dick's Sporting Goods and a third person grabbed the gun.
"Those were some of the most courageous actions I've seen in 25 years," Williams said of the captors.
In Ulster Town Court on Wednesday, Assistant Public Defender Denise Dourdeville waived the scheduled preliminary hearing for his client, town Justice Paula Leonard ordered the case forwarded to the grand jury, and Bonelli was sent back to the county jail where he is under a suicide watch.
Bonelli's friends on the video, Kenneth C. Stine, 24, and Liborio Valguarnera, 23, are facing federal explosives charges.
As his son was led from the court, Robert Bonelli Sr. called out to him: "I love you. God will be with you."
Robert Bonelli Jr. bought ammo at Wal-Mart, wrote suicide notes and had considered a school as his target, DA says
By BRUCE A. SCRUTON, Staff writer
First published: Thursday, February 17, 2005
ULSTER -- In the hours before he shot up the Hudson Valley Mall, Robert Bonelli Jr. bought ammunition at a nearby Wal-Mart, drove to a park and wrote suicide notes as he loaded 60 rounds for his assault rifle, officials said Wednesday.
The possibility also exists that the 25-year-old Saugerties man considered a school as his target. Police found material at his home related to the 1999 Columbine High School shooting, and Bonelli, when questioned by police, said if he had not gone to the mall on Sunday afternoon he planned to visit a mid-Hudson Valley school on Monday.
"There is no cause at this time to believe that any schools are in jeopardy," Ulster County District Attorney Donald Williams said Wednesday. "We have no information that there was any conspiracy."
Sworn statements have been taken from nearly 70 witnesses who were at the mall shortly after 3 p.m. when Bonelli arrived at the Best Buy store and allegedly opened fire. Two men were wounded in the shooting. The district attorney said state law might prevent a prosecution for attempted murder, which requires proof of intent to cause a death. But, he said, first-degree assault, which involves serious injury, is the same level felony. Both are punishable by up to 25 years in prison.
"We take information to the grand jury, and they screen the charges," Williams said. "We don't plea bargain in this office."
The district attorney said it looks like Bonelli never brought the weapon to his shoulder to take aim. Williams said most of the shots were fired into the floor or at the ceiling and even when he brought the rifle level at his hip: "He shot at TVs, or sprayed a blank wall."
"It appears he had opportunities to fire into people, but bypassed them all," the district attorney said.
Williams discounted "suicide-by-cop" theories, noting that there are police stations nearby. "He could have gone there and stood in the parking lot," he said.
He also expressed doubt that the suspect could be found insane. "Yes, normal people don't go into a mall and fire off 60 rounds," Williams said. "It might be a cry for help, but there's a dramatic distance between needing help and crying out and placing peoples' lives in jeopardy."
At Bonelli's home, police also seized a videotape, made last summer, of him and two friends making, then detonating, pipe bombs using smokeless powder, PVC pipe and fuses. The video showed them using an AK-47 look-alike rifle.
The weapon Bonelli fired on Sunday was an American-made copy of that Soviet-era assault weapon, a Hesse Model 47 that was apparently bought at a local gun show within the past two years, according to Williams. The gun can use what's commonly known as a "banana clip," a magazine that holds 30 rounds. But possession of such a "large capacity ammunition feeding device" is prohibited by state law, if the magazine is made after 1994. Police are investigating where Bonelli obtained the clip.
On Wednesday, ammunition, including 7.62 mm shells, could be seen on an open and unlocked shelf under a counter in the sporting goods section of the Wal-Mart store adjacent to the Hudson Valley Mall. The 60 rounds of ammunition cost less than $20. Sunday's mayhem started outside the Best Buy where Bonelli allegedly fired three times at the front door in the parking lot off Route 9W.
One of the shots went through the door, ricocheted and struck Steven Silk, 56, of Kingston in the hand and leg. Bonelli allegedly entered the store and walked down an aisle, emptying one magazine. He paused to reload with the second 30-round magazine and moved out to the main corridor of the mall. People were scattering, but the second victim, Pvt. Thomas Haire, 20, and another soldier, who were operating an Army National Guard recruiting booth, apparently walked toward the shooting.
Williams said the two were still at a distance when Bonelli fired one round, hitting Haire in the knee. Haire, of nearby Pine Plains, is being treated at Albany Medical Center Hospital.
With the second magazine empty, Bonelli placed the gun on the floor and tried to surrender to a mall maintenance man when he was tackled by two employees of Dick's Sporting Goods and a third person grabbed the gun.
"Those were some of the most courageous actions I've seen in 25 years," Williams said of the captors.
In Ulster Town Court on Wednesday, Assistant Public Defender Denise Dourdeville waived the scheduled preliminary hearing for his client, town Justice Paula Leonard ordered the case forwarded to the grand jury, and Bonelli was sent back to the county jail where he is under a suicide watch.
Bonelli's friends on the video, Kenneth C. Stine, 24, and Liborio Valguarnera, 23, are facing federal explosives charges.
As his son was led from the court, Robert Bonelli Sr. called out to him: "I love you. God will be with you."