911 Call in Marine Reservist's Shooting Released

In a 911 call released Friday, former Fayetteville City Councilman Steve Satisky admits he pulled a pistol on a Marine outside a sports bar last October and shot him.

"He jumped in my vehicle. I pulled out my pistol and said, 'Get the hell out of my car,' Satisky tells the 911 dispatcher. "And he wouldn't do it. And I said, 'Get out of my damn car.' And he finally got up and he took a swing. He hit me in the jaw, and I popped him."

Prosecutors say Satisky, 59, then shot Marine reservist Lance Cpl. John Lake III, 22 at the time, in the head on Oct. 16 after he refused to get out of the vehicle in a parking lot near Coaches Sports Bar & Grill on Bragg Boulevard.

Lake, an Iraq war veteran, remains in a coma at Cape Fear Valley Medical Center. Although his family has declined to comment on his condition, prosecutors have said it is unlikely he will regain consciousness.

The call was released following a Cumberland County judge's ruling on a civil lawsuit filed in October by The Fayetteville Observer.

The case has puzzled investigators and the public for months. The two men did not know each other, and it's unclear why Lake, who prosecutors have said was drinking, got in the car.

Defense attorneys for Satisky have declined to provide more details about the case, including information about a woman who was in the cab with Satisky at the time.

She was the one who made the 911 call and reported the shooting before Satisky got on the phone.

"Oh my God. Please, come. Please come," she says.

"What's going on?" the dispatcher asks.

"He shot him. He shot him. He hit him, and he shot him," the female caller says.

Defense attorney Gerald Beaver has called the shooting a case of self-defense.

"(Lake) came into the vehicle uninvited," Beaver told WRAL in April. "He would not leave when asked to do so. When Mr. Satisky … tried opening the door to try to get him out, Mr. Satisky was struck in the face."

Attorneys have said that Satisky had been fighting esophageal cancer and had undergone chemotherapy, radiation and multiple surgeries shortly before the shooting.

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, is out of jail under bond.

He faces attempted first-degree murder, assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill and misdemeanor assault with a deadly weapon.

Earlier this month, Cumberland County District Attorney Ed Grannis asked the North Carolina Attorney General's Office for a special prosecutor in the case, but did not explain why.

Lake's father has said he is glad the case is finally moving forward after nearly eight months.

The case's next hearing is scheduled for July 11.