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Air Passenger's Gunshot Tale Called Lie

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By STEPHEN THOMPSON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 23, 2007

VIDEO: William Notaro Transported By Paramedics

DUNEDIN - An unemployed man was lying when he told authorities he was shot and then went to Tampa International Airport and boarded a flight, Pinellas County sheriff's officials said this afternoon.

The wounds William Notaro suffered were from a BB pistol, and they were self-inflicted, said sheriff's Sgt. Jim Bordner.

Notaro, 37, who is staying with family in Albany, NY., claimed to have boarded a US Airways flight Saturday with bullet wounds. He reportedly asked for a Band-Aid while onboard, and a flight attendant asked for help from authorities at the Charlotte/Douglas International Airport, where Notaro had a layover. Notaro was treated at the Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte before continuing on his way to Albany.

Notaro, Bordner said, lied to authorities in North Carolina, Florida and New York.

An investigation revealed Notaro probably was intoxicated when he shot himself three times with a BB gun early Saturday at a friend's place at Windemere apartments, 1763 Main St., Dunedin, Bordner said.

According to a report filed with the Charlotte/Douglas International Airport Police Department, Notaro told an officer that he had been shot three times with a .22-caliber handgun by an ex-girlfriend in Dunedin. He later told authorities in New York it was a man who had shot him and that the man had shot him with a BB rifle, Bordner said.

Pinellas sheriff's detectives quickly established the incident was not a domestic-related shooting as originally reported by Notaro, and they later learned that a BB gun rather than a firearm had caused the wounds, Bordner said.

Today, Notaro told detectives in Pinellas County he shot himself with a BB pistol. That account has been partially substantiated by witness statements; however, Notaro's credibility remains questionable because of the numerous untrue statements made to investigators in Florida, North Carolina and New York, Bordner said.

Because Notaro gave authorities vastly different versions of how he was injured, they will meet with prosecutors from the Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney's Office to discuss charging him with one count of making a false report of a crime to a law enforcement officer.

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