86-Year-Old Athol Man Facing Battery Charge

Thu., Feb. 5, 1998

From Staff Reports

An 86-year-old Athol man will be tried on an aggravated battery charge in the shooting of a tenant during a dispute over a leased airplane hanger, Magistrate John Luster ruled Wednesday.

Roger Dunham, 50, testified that Roy “Ronald” Fleming shot him once with a pistol. Dunham lifted his shirt to reveal a scar from a gunshot wound on his right side.

The shooting happened Sept. 19 during a dispute over an airplane hanger Dunham was leasing from Fleming off Bonanza Road. Fleming and friend Drexel Mathews, 61, went to the hanger at Hackney Air Field to change the door locks on an apartment inside.

Dunham protested because his lease agreement with Fleming gave him until the end of September to move out, he said.

The three men then argued. Dunham took a metal cane from Fleming, who had allegedly threatened him with it.

Mathews shoved Dunham and Fleming fired two shots from a .25-caliber pistol, Dunham said.

Dunham denied an allegation that he hit Fleming with the cane. Fleming told sheriff’s deputies Dunham hit him several times in the upper body with the cane. , DataTimes

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