2013 freeway shootout case dropped
More than three years after a pair of licensed concealed weapon owners staged a five-mile rolling shootout through Milwaukee, the state dismissed the case against one of the gunmen Monday because of witness problems.
It was exactly the kind of incident concealed carry opponents feared would result from common road rage. Opponents of the concealed carry law, enacted just a few months before the incident, had predicted it would turn some common road rages encounters into just such wild west style affairs.
Eric Adamany, 31, was facing three felonies from the June 2013 incident, but as his trial was finally set to begin Monday, Assistant District Attorney Antonella Aleman told Circuit Judge Frederick Rosa that none of the state's citizen witnesses, all under subpoena, had come to court and she would be unable to proceed. Rosa dismissed the case without prejudice, meaning prosecutors could refile the charges.
Aleman said later she did not believe Adamany tried to intimidate or dissuade the witnesses.
Adamany told a reporter in 2013 that the other man, Roy Anthony Scott, had been the aggressor, and that people in Scott's vehicle had fired between 50 and 100 shots at Adamany as he fled from the south side to an area just north of downtown, where the chase and shootout finally ended, and where both men were arrested and each said they were defending themselves during the gun fight.
Scott, 31, was never charged in that incident but was charged in September 2013 with armed robbery. That case was dismissed in 2014 after prosecutors failed to provide discovery material to the defense. A judge did deny the return of Scott's gun.
Scott was one of the key state witnesses who did not appear Monday. His attorney did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
'Mean mugged'
Scott told police Adamany had "mean mugged" him on the south side and shown a gun. Scott said he then showed his own gun before speeding away. Soon Adamany was chasing him, Scott said, firing shots. So Scott fired back out his driver's window, pointing backward over his shoulder with his right hand while steering with his left.
Scott said he finally had to exit Interstate 43 at North Ave. because all of his tires had been shot out, and his car came to rest on King Drive. He said the other man was still shooting, so he and his passenger ran away until they saw a deputy on N. 4th St.
Adamany told a reporter he called 911 to report the shots and was shooting back at Scott, who Adamany claimed had fired first. Adamany's attorney tried to have the case dismissed because the state failed to turn over all the recordings of those calls, but a judge said Milwaukee police had destroyed them under the department's regular retention policy and that Adamany could have requested them sooner.
Wisconsin began issuing concealed carry licenses in late 2012, and both Adamany and Scott had one. Their battle raised concerns among concealed carry opponents who had predicted such problems if angry drivers could have handguns at the ready.
Gun rights advocates pointed out that by then, there had already been at least five instances in Milwaukee in which permit holders stopped a crime or saved a life with their weapons.
Fortunately, no one was killed or injured in the 2013 affair, that began near S. 27th St. and W. Morgan Ave., and ended near North Ave. and I-43 and occurred late in the evening.
Before the start of a previously scheduled trial, in February, Adamany entered a plea of not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect, but a court-appointed psychiatrist found no support for the plea.
While out on bail for the shooting case, in September 2013, he was charged with burglarizing three garages in Wauwatosa. In 2014, while on bail for both cases, he was charged with disorderly conduct after threatening to get a gun and shoot some people in a confrontation in an alley.
He later pleaded guilty in both cases and was sentenced in February to 30 days in jail, and three years' probation, with a suspended 18-month prison term in the burglary case.