Thursday, January 4, 2007 Older Editions

Police: Woman shot by BB gun

By Brian Messenger and Zach Church

Standing on her back porch in the darkness shortly after 7 p.m., Lisa Marshall of Enfield Drive couldn't see who was shooting at her, but she instantly suspected who might be the guilty party.

Marshall said she was shot in the upper chest and stomach between six and eight times with BB pellets on Dec. 28, an incident that set off a police search that turned up two local teenagers and their weapons.

The boys, ages 14 and 15, were arrested and charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. Police confiscated two machine-gun-like BB guns, two 9mm-pistol-like BB guns and a large knife, Sgt. Cecilia Blaise said.

"Living in Andover you just don't expect something like this to happen," said Marshall, an Enfield Drive resident of five years. "I have children, I don't know what to expect."

Marshall said she has had issues with one of the teens who was arrested before. But no previous encounter compared to being hit by the "rapid fire" of the BB guns after exiting the rear of her house to investigate the sound of BB pellets hitting her sliding door, she said.

"I was shocked," she said. "We've had trouble with him before. Not to this extent, but I immediately thought it was him.

"It felt like being hit with a fast baseball. I didn't scream out. I didn't want them to know they were hurting me," said Marshall. "I heard, 'Let's go,' and they ran off."

Marshall then called police, who soon searched the woods with the help of a police dog from the Wilmington Police Department. It was about 30 minutes to 45 minutes later that they found the two teens hiding in the woods, about 100 yards away from Enfield Drive, Blaise said. One teen was an Andover resident. The other was a friend from North Andover.

Twenty yards away, police found the weapons stashed beneath dense brush, Blaise said.

The boys admitted to police they had been shooting at the house, but denied purposely hitting the woman, Blaise said. The woman gave police BB pellets found on her porch, some of which she believed were the ones that hit her.

"I don't know for a fact that they saw me, but there is no way that they could not have known that I came (outside)," said Marshall, recalling that all the lights were on in her kitchen and no shades were pulled down.

Police released the teens into the custody of their parents on Thursday night with orders to appear in Lawrence Juvenile Court.

Blaise said Andover police are used to seeing all types of vandalism, but have managed to mostly avoid the BB gun crimes experienced in other area communities.

"We really haven't had a problem with BBs," she said.

"No one has contacted me to apologize in any manner," said Marshall, who hoped the boy would eventually get counseling.

"Parents, if they gave their child one of those for Christmas, it is not a toy," she said. "Six inches higher and I would have been blind if (they) hit me in the eye."