Insets: Jonathon Goff, left, and Corey Parker, right (via Indiana State Police). Background: Cornerstone Hall on RC Morris Drive in Salem, Indiana (via GoogleMaps).
It was a wedding reception no guest is likely soon to forget — especially the Indiana man who was shot at it.
Corey Parker — the groom— and Jonathon Goff, a wedding guest, were arrested and charged on May 18 after Indiana State Police responded to a call for help about a possible drunken shooting at a wedding reception held at Cornerstone Hall
As reported by local NBC affiliate WAVE, police said the first call to 911 dispatch came from a woman attending the wedding who said Parker had shot her boyfriend while fighting with another man, later identified as Jonathan Goff.
When officers interviewed him, Parker allegedly said that his bride left with Goff’s wife to return to the Cobblestone Hotel. An argument broke out, Parker said, between Goff and his own wife after being accused of flirting with another woman at the wedding.
Police said Parker told them he then decided to leave and another argument was sparked shortly between Goff and Parker. The men got into a shoving match. Parker reportedly told police that he was already in his car — where a firearm was kept in the center console — when Goff started successfully forcing his way into the vehicle.
In what the groom described as a moment of “rustle and bustle,” the gun went off and hit a man at the reception hall in the hand. That man was later hospitalized. Police said he was the boyfriend of the woman who first called police about the ruckus at the party that evening. Police said Parker told them he didn’t mean to shoot the man.
Court records show Parker and Goff were charged with felony criminal recklessness committed with a deadly weapon and battery resulting in bodily injury.
Both men posted bonds of $3,000 each and both made their first court appearances on May 20. They both entered not guilty pleas. A no-contact order was issued for Parker and the Washington County Circuit court agreed to release the men pretrial. A trial date is set for September 3.
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