Father gets probation in accidental shooting of son

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BRIDGEPORT — A Monroe father, accused of accidentally shooting his 11-year-old son in the face while securing his wife’s gun, was granted a special form of probation Thursday.

While state Superior Court Judge Earl Richards said he considered the incident to be serious, he was gratified the boy suffered no permanent injuries and said he was convinced the father, Vincent Pizzolato, would not commit criminal acts in the future. Richards granted the 44-year-old Pizzolato accelerated rehabilitation.

Under accelerated rehabilitation, Pizzolato, who was charged with second-degree assault, second-degree reckless endangerment and unlawful discharge of a firearm for the March 8 incident, did not plead guilty to the crime but was placed on two years’ probation. If he commits no crimes during that probation, the charges against him will be dismissed.

The judge also ordered Pizzolato to do 100 hours of community service.

State prosecutors did not object to the granting of accelerated rehabilitation and both the boy and his mother, Pizzolato’s wife, urged the judge to grant Pizzolato the probation.

“This was an accident, and while it is certainly fair to say that gun accidents can lead to serious injury and even death, at the end of the day we have here a little boy who suffered no permanent injury and is back to be a little boy,” Pizzolato’s lawyer, Frank Riccio Jr., told the judge. “And my client is going to have to live with what happened.”

Pizzolato is a lead engineer at Sikorsky Aircraft. During the hearing Riccio gave the judge two-dozen letters of support from his client’s friends and colleagues.

“It was an appropriate result,” Riccio said as he and Pizzolato left the Golden Hill Street courthouse. Pizzolato declined comment.

Shortly after 3:30 p.m. on March 8, police were detailed to Partridge Drive in Monroe for a shooting. Police said officers entered the home through the open garage door and saw the victim being tended to by his mother in the family room. She was applying pressure to a gunshot wound to the boy’s left cheek and right side of his mouth. Police said Pizzolato was standing in the living room on the phone with emergency dispatchers. Police said he was visibly distraught and shaking. The boy, who lost five teeth in the shooting, was taken to Bridgeport Hospital.

Police said Pizzolato and his wife had earlier returned home from target practice at the Bridgeport Shooting range. Pizzolato had taken both guns into the basement and, after putting his own gun into a safe, he began securing his wife’s Ruger 9mm semi-automatic handgun. At the time, their son was in the adjoining basement TV room playing video games.

Police said Pizzolato told them he checked the chamber and magazine, both which appeared empty. He pulled the trigger and the gun fired, the bullet piercing a plastic rifle case and the gypsum wall board.