When shots rang out near his firehouse in Hempstead, Long Island, Michael Charles did what any red-blooded fire chief would have done: grab a gun, form a posse, and saddle up (in an SUV). But for his efforts, Charles and FDNY firefighter Brian Schuck, who joined in the armed manhunt, have been charged with second-degree menacing and fourth-degree possession of a dangerous weapon charges. (A third member of the posse is expected to be arrested soon, Newsday reports.) In their search for the gunman, the three men allegedly stopped and frisked an innocent man, 29-year-old Kenneth Powell, who happens to be the son of Hempstead Village Trustee Perry Pettus.
Powell told investigators he was walking along Tompkins Place Sunday when the three men pulled up in an SUV with the fire department seal on it. He says one man pointed a gun at him as he was questioned and patted down; Schuck allegedly stayed inside the SUV with a shotgun protruding from the window. "I was petrified," Powell tells Newsday. According to police, he was not involved with the shooting incident, in which two men exchanged gunfire, injuring another man and a woman in the crossfire.
When Powell told Chief Charles he was the son of a local official, he was released. "[Charles] formed his own posse, went out looking for a suspect and acted in a vigilante manner," a Nassau police spokesman says. "We simply can't condone people taking the law into their own hands."
But Chief Charles has helped local police in the past; he once detained a drunk driver until he could be arrested. And his attorney wants everyone to know that Powell did two years in prison after pleading guilty to criminal possession of a weapon. The Daily News reports that it "was not clear why they targeted" Powell, but here's a photo of his father, so you do the math. Charles tells the Post, "My instincts kicked in. I guess it doesn't pay to get involved anymore."
