“You and the students have suffered for a long time and I have no doubt that the situation could have escalated. You probably did it on a whim, and you were angry. But that doesn’t absolve you of responsibility. You haven’t taken any effective precautions – not even a camera in the house. That’s not the way to deal with it, you can’t shoot people,” Judge Zuzana Kotisova of the District Court for Prague 9 told Spritzl.
Part of the sentence included confiscation of weapons found by police on a man without a firearms license – including a home-made machine gun and a revolver. “I would like to ban the acquisition and possession of weapons, but that is not possible,” commented the judge.
The man faced a maximum sentence of five years in prison for causing bodily harm, disorderly conduct and illegal weapons. The public prosecutor fined him separately 50,000 CZK.
“I’m not happy to just impose a fine. I understand that a fine is a person buying pleasure and that’s all. I’ll have to control you for some more time,” Kotisova explained, adding that she also decided on a suspended sentence with two years of probation. She also said that she does not see self-reflection in men.
They scared me for a year, the pensioner said about the children
The incident took place on November 1 last year in a park on Slévačská street in Prague 9, where several children from Chvaletická elementary school were spending their lunch break. Spryzl, who was sitting in a shed on neighboring property, fired in their direction, hitting a boy in the chest. The gunshot wound required surgery under general anesthesia, and the boy was then treated at home for a month.
“When his classmate called me that his son had been shot, I thought it was some kind of stupid joke,” the boy’s mother recalled in court Wednesday. Even after seven months, I find it very difficult to talk about it,” she said.
She said doctors were unable to remove Diabola during a local autopsy and her terrified son asked the hospital if she would survive. She repeatedly insisted that the boy was shot in a public square. Spry laughed when she said her son was “very lively.”
“They should apologize to me for threatening me there for a year. I am not saying that her son is throwing things at me and scolding me there. I don’t know how to drive them away anymore,” the 68-year-old defendant replied, asking the judge if he wanted to apologize to the boy’s mother.
He admitted that he did not know the victim and did not know who he was. “I’m not targeting anyone. It makes you feel bad, I understand, but for example I was sitting in the garden with my three-year-old granddaughter and stones started flying. If you live in it and eat four times a week…,” he continued.
“So sorry for the hurt,” he finally said, adding that he wouldn’t have shot the kids on purpose because his friend had been shot on his way to school.
“You don’t shoot anybody! My son got it for everybody,” the mother replied. Wednesday, the court his son and his friends, without public presence and without Sprýsl, because the judge does not want to hurt the children more.
After the shot the pensioner left to watch TV. According to his own words, he did not notice that he hit anyone. He then told the police that he was in an emotional state and aimed at the children’s torsos as he feared they would trespass into his garden. But he changed his statement in court. He said he only wanted to scare the kids by hearing the gunshots and didn’t even know the gun was loaded.
According to the ruling, the man must pay the injured boy 103,000 crowns in compensation for pain and non-pecuniary damages. Another 46,000 crowns will be paid by the health insurance company.
