DA: Reservist Shooting Case Merits Special Prosecutor

Steve Satisky, 59, was indicted in April on attempted first-degree murder, assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill and misdemeanor assault with a deadly weapon charges in connection with the Oct. 16 shooting of Cpl. John Lake III.

Satisky, who served on the City Council in the 1970s and was on the Cumberland County Alcoholic Beverage Control Board at the time of the shooting, maintains he shot Lake in self-defense.

Prosecutors said Lake had been drinking when he got out of a cab outside a sports bar on Bragg Boulevard and jumped into the back of Satisky's car. Satisky and a woman were in the front seat, and he shot Lake in the head after the reservist refused to get out, prosecutors said.

Lake, an Iraq War veteran, remains in a coma at Cape Fear Valley Medical Center.

Neither Grannis not the Attorney General's Office would provide a reason for appointing a special prosecutor to handle the case.