sp-shooting-2.JPG

Scotch Plains police and Union County Sheriff's officers work the scene outside a shooting in a Scotch Plains home Tuesday.

(Tom Wright-Piersanti/The Star-Ledger)



SCOTCH PLAINS — Police filed charges against a 28-year-old Scotch Plains man and seized nearly 100 firearms after a relative who lives in the same house was shot Tuesday, authorities said today.

Robert Dietz has been charged with aggravated assault, pointing a loaded firearm and possession of a high-capacity magazine, said Mark Spivey, a spokesman for the Union County Prosecutor's Office.

The victim, also named Robert Dietz, was taken to University Hospital in Newark Tuesday morning with a single gunshot wound, Spivey said. He has since been released.

The two men live in the same house on Church Avenue, though Spivey would not elaborate on their relationship.

Police seized 92 firearms during a search of the house, Spivey said. There were about two dozen permits on file, and prosecutors are looking into the ones applicable to the investigation.

Spivey would not say which type of gun was used in the shooting, or which guns were seized.

On Tuesday, Scotch Plains Police Chief Brian Mahoney said his department was investigating a potential family dispute that led to the shooting, though investigators did not offer any new details today.

The younger Dietz is in custody, Spivey said, but it was unclear whether he was being held in the township or at the Union County jail.

Related coverage:

• Police investigate shooting in Scotch Plains home

FOLLOW THE STAR-LEDGER: TWITTER • FACEBOOK • GOOGLE+