December 4, 2008 Gun club, police chief, charged in accidental Uzi death Play video

(Brian Burnell, NECN: Hartford, CT) - A Massachusetts police chief and a gun club are facing involuntary manslaughter charges tonight. The indictments stem from October's accident at a Westfield, Massachusetts gun show.

8-year-old Christopher Bizilj of Connecticut died after shooting himself in the head with an Uzi. His death has raised the question: "How young is too young" when it comes to guns and kids.

Click here for a full report on the tragedy.

Click here to hear more from a young boy who shot the very same gun.

This machine gun event at the Westfield sportsman's club in Massachusetts in October was billed as a place adults could bring their kids and let them fire machine guns. One of those kids was 8-year-old Christopher Bizilj of Ashford, Connecticut. His father chose a micro-Uzi for his son to try.

William Bennett, Hampden County DA: While Christopher was shooting the micro-Uzi the weapon turned back on him and he was shot in the face resulting in his death.

Hampden county district attorney William Bennett announced the indictment of the man who promoted the event, Edward Fluery, on one count of involuntary manslaughter in Christopher's death. Fluery also faces 4 counts of furnishing a machine gun to a person under the age of 18. Fluery

promoted the show through his business, cop firearms in training but his regular job is police chief of tiny Pelham, Massachusetts. Or it was.

We came here to Pelham to talk to Chief Fluery about this and were told by Police Lieutenant Gary Thoman that Fluery no longer lives in town. Thoman confirmed that he is, in fact, the acting chief at this point though he wouldn't discuss Fluery's status nor would any town officials.

The gun club is also charged in this case. The promotion leading up to the event said the children firing machine guns would be supervised by certified and licensed instructors. The DA says the boy supervising Christopher was 15 years old and, while familiar with guns, is not licensed or certified. He says the micro-Uzi fires 12-hundred rounds a minute, 20 to 25 per second and is very light making it difficult to control. Bennett adds Christopher's father, dr. Charles Bizilj, chose the gun.

William Bennett, Hampden County DA: It appears he selected the micro-Uzi to fire because it was small and he did not realize that its small size actually made it more dangerous. In addition the father will be punished every day for the rest of his life because of what happened. Therefore I think its appropriate not to pursue criminal charges against the father.

Two Connecticut men have also been charged with involuntary manslaughter. Bennett says Carl Guiffre of Hartford and Domenico Spano of New Milford provided the machine guns for the event.