Justice Neil is shaken but unharmed this morning after a series of gunshots lasting more than 4 minutes were fired in his direction at his cottage in Wyoming. The shots are said to have come from a neighbor who has a longstanding feud with Gorsuch over the location of a fence along the property line. The man, August Russo, is in custody and faces federal charges for attempting to assassinate a Supreme Court Justice.
Gorsuch, who said he has no comment but was glad to be unharmed, said the man next door has tried this kind of thing before, only now there are Secret Service agents patrolling the property. After locating the source of the shots, none of which struck the Gorsuch home, the man was taken into custody. Russo told the booking officer that he was just trying to scare Gorsuch into moving his fence 4 feet along a 125-foot property line shared by the two neighbors:
“He thinks cuz he’s some big shot that it don’t matter where he puts his fence. That’s my property. It’s not fair.”
Gorsuch has said in the past when interviewed about the issue that the fence was there when he bought the property and as far as he was concerned, could come down if his neighbor felt like taking it down:
“I actually think it’s his fence and he doesn’t remember building it. He’s a bit senile.”
Russo faces life in prison if convicted.
