4 days ago
Dad upset over girl's ‘constant bullying' shoots at teens' SUV, CA officials say
A father upset over his daughter's 'constant bullying' shot at an SUV driven by teenage boys accused of egging his home, California prosecutors say.
Craig Steven Miceli, 54, was arraigned on felony charges Tuesday, May 27, the San Mateo District Attorney's Office said in a news release.
He pleaded not guilty, prosecutors said.
'It's the response that's the crime,' San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe told KGO-TV. 'You do not get to take a firearm out and point it at a car with human beings in it and fire.'
The San Mateo Police Department said they were investigating a shooting the morning of Sunday, May 25, that stemmed from 'alleged bullying and/or harassment,' the department said in a May 28 Facebook post.
Just after midnight that day, three boys, two 16-year-olds and one 17-year-old, 'were driving around San Mateo pulling pranks on classmates' from their high school, prosecutors said.
Two days earlier, the boys went to a San Mateo home where a girl from school 'they did not like lived,' prosecutors said.
They doused the porch in oil then left, according to prosecutors.
When the boys returned on Sunday, they got out of the SUV, each threw an egg at the girl's home and got back into the SUV, prosecutors said.
As they started to drive away, they encountered the girl's father, Miceli, 'standing in the street' armed with a handgun, according to prosecutors.
Miceli fired two shots, and one bullet hit the SUV's front passenger side panel, prosecutors said.
Officers arrived and stopped the SUV, prosecutors said.
A short time later, Miceli came to speak with officers, telling them how angry he was over his daughter's 'constant bullying' at her high school, prosecutors said.
Miceli also told officers he was upset by how much time it took him to clean the oil from the incident days prior, prosecutors said.
Miceli told officers when the same SUV returned to his home, and the boys threw eggs at his house, 'he angrily fired at the tires,' prosecutors said.
The gun was tossed in Water Dog Lake a few miles from his home, he told police, according to prosecutors.
After getting a search warrant to search the home, officers 'found an illegal automatic rifle' and several kinds of ammunition, prosecutors said.
Miceli is facing multiple charges, including three counts of assault with a firearm and one count of shooting at an occupied vehicle, prosecutors said.
He is scheduled to appear in court June 9, prosecutors said.
San Mateo is about a 20-mile drive south from San Francisco.
