Port Orange, Florida

From the Daytona Beach News-Journal of March 17, 2006

Fear led to man's shooting, police say

A 16-year-old boy shot his aunt's boyfriend, police said, because the teen was afraid of the older man.

The boyfriend, Christopher Morgan, said he was standing in the living room of his girlfriend's apartment in the 1300 block of Dunlawton Avenue on Tuesday night, when the shot rang out.

"My girlfriend and I were having an argument and her nephew shot me," the 28-year-old Morgan said from home a day after he was wounded in the chest by the Spruce Creek High freshman and treated at Halifax Medical Center.

But Port Orange investigators said the teenager told them he shot Morgan because the man displayed "some threatening behavior toward his aunt."

Cmdr. Tim Girard would not elaborate on any of the interviews investigators conducted with the teen because the case is under investigation. The teen has not been charged.

But the boy's aunt, Charlotte Valery, said there had been trouble with Morgan in the past. The couple live together at the Victoria Garden Apartments along with Valery's two children -- a girl, 5, and a boy, 13, a police report shows.

The 16-year-old involved in the attack lives in Port Orange and was visiting his aunt and young cousins, police said.

Valery's father, Don Valery, said the small-caliber handgun his grandson used to shoot Morgan belongs to Valery, 32. He also acknowledged there had been some bad behavior on Morgan's part in other instances.

"He was just defending her," Don Valery said of his teenage grandson and the shooting.

The fact that, according to court records, Morgan has an extensive criminal past dating to 1995 on charges such as domestic battery, battery on a pregnant woman and violation of a protective order, surprised Don Valery, who also lives in Port Orange.

"I didn't know that," he said quietly.

Thursday, Girard said investigators would turn the case over to the State Attorney's Office.