Iraq Veteran Testifies He Fired to Scare, Not Injure Revelers

SALEM, Mass. â€”  An Iraq war veteran charged with injuring two people when he fired a shotgun from his home testified Wednesday that he wanted to scare away a rowdy crowd after a bottle crashed through his second-floor window.

Sgt. Daniel Cotnoir said he felt “under attack� when he fired his 12-gauge shotgun out the window of his Lawrence home in August. The shotgun shell shattered against a curb, and fragments struck two late-night revelers.

Cotnoir is charged with two counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison.

His residence, which also is his family’s funeral home, overlooks a parking lot across from two nightclubs.

“I pointed the shotgun away from the crowd and fired,� he said.

“It was a clear area. It wasn’t my intention to hit anybody. I wanted them to stop throwing stuff at my house.�

Cotnoir, who served eight months in Iraq in 2004, helped create a morticians unit for the Marine Corps, for which he was credited in winning the Marine of the Year award.

Cotnoir told prosecutor John Dawley that he expected the shell to ricochet into a wall.

“You have no way of knowing where that is going,� Dawley said.

Police Sgt. Shawn Quaglietta testified that Cotnoir was “kind of emotional� after the shooting and that he could smell alcohol on the Marine’s breath.

“I was absolutely sober,� Cotnoir said.