Sofia Resident Kept under Arrest for Shooting at Children Playing

The Sofia City Court has decided to keep under arrest a 65-year-old Bulgarian man who shot down an 11-year-old child playing in front of the block of flats he lives in.

Aram Michaelyan was detained in early August after shooting at a group of children making noise in front of his apartment building in the Svoboda residential district in the Bulgarian capital Sofia.

Michaelyan used an air rifle converted into a small-caliber firearm. 11-year old Teodor Grigorov suffered a knee injury from the attack.

Hristo Botev, Michaelyan's lawyer, tried to persuade the magistrates that the act of the elderly man had not intended to cause the bodily harm and that although the case was an unpleasant incident the man was not a threat to society.

Michaelyan confirmed that he was sorry and called on the judges to leave him under house arrest.

His claims, however, were not accepted.

Upon his arrest, the man told the police officers that he had only wanted to frighten the kids without hurting anybody,

"I got nervous. We warned them several times. 10-12 kids usually gather there and raise a little hell. They also curse my wife and call her names", the 65-year-old Sofia resident said.

A police inspection of his apartment yielded a set of weapons, including a gas gun and ammunition.

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