The off-duty correction officer who allegedly shot his teenage son after they fought over the boy’s shoplifting arrest is using the Oscar Pistorius defense.
Robert Smalls, 39, claimed in court Monday he mistook his son for an intruder in their Queens home when he fired a shot into the 17-year-old’s stomach early Sunday morning. Now the boy is relieved just to be alive. “I’m thankful,” Quasaun said from his bed at Elmhurst Hospital, before disappearing from the facility Tuesday morning. The elder Smalls was arraigned on charges of felony assault and criminal possession of a weapon in Queens Criminal Court after shooting Quasaun about 4:30 a.m. Sunday. “By the time I realized it was my son the gun had discharged,” Smalls told police, according to court papers. Rikers Island co-workers and union delegates showed up in court to support Smalls, who offered an eerie account to detectives of how he ended up shooting his son. According to court papers, Smalls said he heard steps inside his home Sunday and shouted, “Who is it?”Why criminal possession of a weapon? Being a prison guard, wouldn't he be allowed? Regardless, I count him as another lawful gun owner who went bad. You guys are dangerous, as a group, very dangerous.
