UPDATE: Bay City business owner says party kept going after 81-year-old neighbor shot up guest's car

BAY CITY, MI — An 81-year-old Bay City man is facing criminal charges after police say he opened fire on a car because he believed it was parked too close to his property.

Police on the afternoon of June 8 responded to a call of shots fired from the home at 1200 Stanton St. in Bay City’s South End. The initial officers on the scene arrived to see Richard J. O’Hara standing on his porch, wearing a purple coat and holding a pistol in his hand and arguing with another man, later identified as Nelson Niederer.

Police were eventually able to confront O’Hara and place him under arrest.

O’Hara told the police he had been instructing people not to park on 32nd Street by his house, claiming his property extends 7 feet into the roadway, court records show. A 2012 Chevrolet Malibu was parked there, and O’Hara began telling people gathered nearby to move it, he told police.

A short time later, Niederer came over to O’Hara’s porch and started yelling at him, O’Hara told the officers. O’Hara then went inside his home and came back out with a .45-caliber pistol, he said.

“I stepped out on the porch,” O’Hara told police, according to court records. “I wanted to fill (the car) full of holes but I just discharged my weapon twice at it. I don’t know if I even hit it. I’m not sure if I hit anything.”

O’Hara said that while he may have pointed his gun toward people gathered outside, he never aimed it at them.

“If I would have aimed the gun I would have told them to protect their women and children,” he said. “I never had my finger on the trigger.”

Niederer told police he owns a woodshop business at 1823 Broadway Ave. and he had people over for a grand-opening party when O’Hara started causing ruckus from his porch. Niederer said he heard two pops then went to have a conversation with O’Hara.

O’Hara maintained the Malibu, owned by a third party, was parked on his property, but Niederer said it was parked legally on the street, court records show.

Niederer tried to calm down O’Hara, to no avail, he told police.

The Malibu had two bullet holes in its front bumper. Police found two spent shell casings in O’Hara’s yard, court records show.

Witness Matthew McFarland told officers that O’Hara regularly shoots guns in his basement. When he heard the shots, he thought O’Hara’s windows were open, he told police.

Police confiscated numerous guns and varying types of ammunition from O’Hara’s home, court records show.

Bay County Chief District Judge Timothy J. Kelly on Monday, June 10, arraigned O’Hara on single counts of assault with a dangerous weapon, malicious destruction of personal property between $200 and $1,000, and brandishing a firearm in public. The first charge is a four-year felony, while the latter two are misdemeanors.

Kelly set O’Hara’s bond at $25,000 cash-surety. He is to appear for a preliminary examination at 3 p.m. on Monday, June 24.