By REBECCA EVERETT
@GazetteRebecca
Daily Hampshire Gazette
NORTHAMPTON — The night former Pelham police chief Edward Fleury allegedly pointed a handgun at his friend outside a Belchertown bar, the two had planned to meet there to discuss a business venture “involving firearm safety” and opening a shooting range.
That’s according to the account of the Aug. 2 incident given by the friend, Peter Terapulsky of Pelham, which is included in documents filed in Eastern Hampshire District Court.
Fleury, 57, of 10 King St., Pelham, pleaded not guilty yesterday in Hampshire Superior Court to charges of assault with a dangerous weapon, 21 counts of improper storage of a large-capacity firearm, and one count of improper storage of a firearm. Police said they found 21 large-capacity firearms and more than one non-large-capacity firearm all unsecured when they searched his home Sept. 11 looking for the handgun used in the Aug. 2 incident.
Fleury’s weapons are now being held by the Pelham Police Department, where he was chief from 1991 to 2009. He resigned after an 8-year-old boy accidentally shot and killed himself with an Uzi machine gun at a firearms exhibition in Westfield in 2008 that Fleury organized. The former chief was acquitted in 2011 of manslaughter in connection with the death of that child, Christopher Bizilj of Ashford, Connecticut.
After his arrest Sept. 11, Fleury was originally charged in Eastern Hampshire District Court with assault with a dangerous weapon in connection with Aug. 2 incident, but his case was moved to Hampshire Superior Court after a grand jury indicted him Dec. 16 on the 23 charges.
Hampshire Superior Court Judge Mary-Lou Rup ruled yesterday that Fleury could remain free on personal recognizance on condition that he stay away from Terapulsky and the Belchertown Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 8428 and allow the Pelham Police Department to continue to hold his guns while the case is pending. Fleury is due back in court on April 28.
Messages left at Fleury’s home and at the Northampton office of his attorney, Patrick Melnik Jr., were not returned yesterday afternoon.
Details of the alleged assault outside the Belchertown VFW were included in a search warrant application filed by Belchertown Police in Eastern Hampshire District Court — the same search warrant that resulted in the discovery Sept. 11 of the allegedly unlocked firearms at Fleury’s home.
According to the search warrant application, Terapulsky told police that about 9:15 p.m. Aug. 2 he went to the Belchertown VFW to meet with Fleury and another man “to discuss a business venture involving firearm safety, producing handguns, and developing an indoor firing range.”
The third man did not arrive, but he and Fleury stayed at the VFW and Fleury drank several draft beers, Terapulsky told police. Around midnight, Terapulsky was outside the bar talking to a friend, Kimberlee Giverson, when Fleury joined the conversation. According to court records, Terapulsky told police that while everyone was talking, Fleury drew his .40-caliber Glock handgun and pointed it at him so that red dot from the laser sighting device glowed on his chest “for a second or two.” Fleury then holstered the gun on his right hip, Terapulsky said.
Terapulsky told police he did not fear for his life, but was “very nervous” to have the gun pointed at his chest. He believed it was loaded because he knew Fleury to always carry a loaded gun, according to court records. Fleury is licensed to carry a firearm, court records show.
Police also interviewed Giverson, a manager of the VFW, who was not working at the time she witnessed the incident. She told police a man she knew only as Ed had been giving motorcycle rides to young women in the parking lot earlier that night, and she recalled talking to Terapulsky outside while smoking a cigarette. She said she saw a red light out of the corner of her eye and asked what it was. According to the document, Fleury told her it was a gun, but she never saw the gun or a red dot on Terapulsky.
“She told Edward Fleury to put the gun away and that the VFW was no place for weapons,” Belchertown Police Detective John F. Raymer Jr. wrote in the search warrant application. The court granted permission for the search of Fleury’s home, his pickup truck, and his place of employment, Forest Park in Springfield.
According to documents filed in Hampshire Superior Court, among the 21 large-capacity weapons allegedly found at his home were a Luger, an Uzi, a Colt assault rifle, three Spikes Tactical SL-15s, and a Bushmaster Model XM15-E25 rifle — the same type of gun Adam Lanza used in the 2012 Sandy Hook School shooting. Also confiscated was a .40-caliber Glock handgun.
Before court yesterday, Assistant Northwestern District Attorney Matthew D. Thomas said the one count of improper storage of a non-large-capacity firearm represents more than one non-large-capacity weapon allegedly found unsecured at Fleury’s home.
Fleury was at the center of another incident involving firearms in 2003. He was teaching a firearms safety class at the Pelham Community Center when he unintentionally fired a rifle that he did not realize was loaded, and a bullet went through a wall and into a steel door frame.
Rebecca Everett can be reached at [email protected].
