Man charged with firing assault rifle

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Charges were filed Friday against a Jefferson City man in connection with a shots fired case that occurred Thursday afternoon.

According to court documents, Mark Ostberg, 21, is charged with one count of unlawful use of a weapon and unlawful possession of a firearm.

A Jefferson City Police Department probable cause statement shows the incident occurred around 5:15 p.m. in the Broadmoor Apartment complex on Ellis Boulevard.

A witness stated he saw three subjects near a lower-level apartment and one subject appeared to be “excited” after the shots.

Officers later located an empty shell casing and a live round of ammunition, determined to have come from an AK-47 assault rifle.

Officers contacted the individuals in the apartment and later determined one of those, Ostberg, had discharged the rifle.

Ostberg later told authorities he fired one round in the air outside the apartment.

Officers said Ostberg showed signs of intoxication and a breath test revealed his blood alcohol level was .174.

A check of his criminal history found Ostberg had been convicted of felony stealing in October 2008.

More like this story

jeffcitygirl 2 years, 6 months ago

Flipping IDIOT! I live in that complex, with my three kids. What if his bullet in the air would have came back down on someone or their property? Wow...just scary! That and the armed robbery the same day. I think it's time for me to move!

LBF 2 years, 6 months ago

This story is completely inaccurate. A true "Assault Rifle" is a full-automatic rifle that is highly restricted to people in the US. I am sure that the gentleman in question fires a semi-automatic rifle that looks like an AK, but is actually a chinese made copy. You need to get your facts straight and stop trying to sensationalize the story beyond what it is - a drunk who did something stupid.

online_editor 2 years, 6 months ago

LBF, thanks for raising this issue, but please consider that when we take a description from the police probable cause statement, it's simply to relay the information in the statement to the public. Naturally, such documents contain the police department's allegations, and are unproven in court. --Rick Brown, online editor, News Tribune

Festus_Hagen 2 years, 6 months ago

Like LBF said, it's NOT an assault rifle, it's a semi-automatic AK-47 rifle. Assault rifles are what the military uses overseas and the police force use to shoot dogs with . I have a few AK's myself, and I assure you they only fire one bullet with a single trigger pull. That said... this guy was a FELON in possession of a firearm doing something VERY stupid. I hope they nail him to the wall on this.

online_editor 2 years, 6 months ago

Now I'm confused by what I perceive as a slight difference in terminology being used, and I'm not sure how to word my question of both LBF and Festus to gain clarity, but here goes. Festus uses the term semi-automatic AK-47, but LBF refers to a semi-automatic copy that looks like an AK. So here's my question. Since the letter "A" supposedly stands for the Russian word for automatic, it can't technically be called an AK if it is semi-automatic only, right? In other words, a reporter would want to avoid describing a rifle as a "semi-automatic AK" because that's a contradiction, just as it's incorrect to call a semi-automatic rifle an assault rifle? Yes? Or do owners have some variables in usage of terms that are generally accepted? Thanks for the insight.

TheRickster 2 years, 6 months ago

Just call it a "high powered rifle" and be done. Most gun haters love the term "assault" rifle so it can drum up discontent with some folks' saftey and piece of mind.

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