LEBANON — A Windsor man is facing charges after police say he fired a gun from his car near several Lebanon homes and the Dairy Twirl on Wednesday night.
Joseph Daly, 39, pleaded not guilty Thursday in Grafton Superior Court to counts of reckless conduct with a deadly weapon, driving while intoxicated and marijuana possession. He was ordered released on a $10,000 bond and told to not possess a firearm and to attend counseling, according to court documents.
No one was injured in the incident, which started around 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, when a woman called police to say she’d heard two or three gunshots near 26 Mechanic St. in Lebanon, according to an affidavit written by Lebanon police officer Jeremy Perkins. The building is located next to the Dairy Twirl, police said, ading that the ice cream stand was open and had customers out in front at the time of the gunfire.
The woman told dispatchers that the man who fired the gun was sitting in a white SUV parked in the lot of the former Kleen Laundry building on Mechanic Street and that he had shouted, “Why am I still … here,” the affidavit said.
When police arrived, they found Daly sitting in the car, initially ignoring officers’ orders to step outside. Daly’s mother, who was standing near the car, told police that he was upset from “an incident involving his daughter’s mother,” the affidavit said.
Daly eventually got out of the car, unarmed, and said that he’d been setting off fireworks in the area. When pressed on the issue, he told police that he did have a gun in the car and that he’d fired two shots — one into the ground and one into a nearby pole — the affidavit said.
Police searched the car and found the unloaded gun in a “void” under the gear shift and a magazine behind the plastic panel on the passenger side door, according to the affidavit. They also smelled alcohol coming from Daly and found a bag of marijuana in the car, along with a scale and several empty bags, the affidavit said.
Employees working at the nearby Dairy Twirl at the time said they had heard two “pops,” according to co-owner Brent Murray.
“That was all anyone heard,” he said. “It happened so quickly, we didn’t realize what was transpiring.”
It wasn’t until a few minutes later, when police cars surrounded the former dry cleaners’ parking lot, that Murray said they realized it may have been gunshots.
A new court date for Daly has not been set.
Anna Merriman can be reached at amerriman@vnews.com or 603-727-3216.