Michael Selleneit, Utah Man, Shoots Neighbor For 'Telepathically Threatening' Him: Police

A Utah man shot and severely wounded a neighbor who he believed had been "telepathically threatening" him and his wife, according to police.

Michael Selleneit, 53, is accused of opening fire on Tony Pierce at around 4:55 p.m. on Oct. 30 in their Centerville trailer park, hitting the 41-year-old victim in the back and the leg.

"It was totally unprovoked. The victim was working in his yard with his back to the shooter," Lt. Paul Child, of the Centerville Police Department, told Fox 13. "There was no argument or anything that precipitated this particular event."

Pierce underwent emergency surgery resulting in the removal of his spleen, according to The Salt Lake Tribune.

"The victim's condition has been upgraded to stable this morning," Child told The Huffington Post.

For his part, Selleneit reportedly claims he fired on his neighbor in self-defense.

The suspect insisted to investigators that Pierce had been "telepathically threatening" himself and his wife, and claimed his neighbor "had telepathically raped his wife on many occasions," police told The Tribune.

Selleneit, has a "diminished mental capacity," according to Fox 13. Police say he believed Pierce was attempting to break into his trailer -- an allegation the suspect had lobbed at other neighbors before.

Investigators recovered a .380-caliber semi-automatic handgun believed to have been used in the attack. Police say Selleneit is not allowed to own a firearm due to a 1990 conviction for forcible sexual abuse of a child.

The suspect has been charged with attempted homicide and possession of a firearm by a restricted person and he is being held without bail, Child told The Huffington Post.

WATCH:

Comments

[mareimbrium]

08:24 PM on 12/07/2011

Wow, the shooter said the victim had been threatening himself? How helpful of Mr. Selleneit to protect him from himself. Nice writing.

[crescentvalley]

09:07 PM on 11/07/2011

Man has a future as an NRA Board Member.

[rexreddy]

12:52 PM on 11/07/2011

Selleneit is not allowed to own a firearm due to a 1990 conviction for forcible sexual abuse of a child.

Why was he out of prison? He used a gun to rape a child.

[Karmella]

07:43 PM on 11/06/2011

Unfortunately, nothing can be done with people like this man until they cause serious harm. There is a situation similiar to this waiting to happen near where one of my family member lives. An obviously mentally ill woman is parading around her property with two shot guns, as she feels her neighbor and the city is plotting to take her property. She also had posted a sign on her property stating the type of children that she did not want to come to her home for Halloween. I suppose her story will make it to Huffington Post as well, WHEN she finally kills or maims someone.

[Charles Carmichael]

02:10 PM on 11/03/2011

Is this guy living on Crystal Meth?

[Rachelvis]

03:40 PM on 11/03/2011

Well he does live in a trailer park..

[Howard53545]

08:01 AM on 11/03/2011

With the way this dude looks, I would be watching him all the time with my glock in hand.

[lc6529]

07:22 AM on 11/03/2011

What is scary is that there are more people like this out in the world and you can never tell when they will lose it. Many years ago, I worked in a warehouse to pay for school and one of the employees was a guy in his 50's that you could tell was just not wound too tight.

He would be ok for a few days and then some days he would come in and literally laugh all day long at the top of his lungs while working.

He was finally committed when he grabbed an employee in a headlock and set the guys beard on fire...while laughing...

[mm3264]

12:16 AM on 11/03/2011

RevJimIII on Nov 2, 2011 at 21:41:06
“Why don't you retire that mock outrage, I would love it if violence were not part of the world.. fact is, that it is. What I do not like is for people to use incidence of violence such as that in this story as an excuse to call for the disarmamen­t of law abiding citizens to satisfy their desire to 'do something'­... even if it is not the right thing. It is much easier to call for stricter gun laws than do what is necessary to help reduce violence by addressing the root causes of the problem.”
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The root causes of the problem is private gun sales, where no background checks are given. Had this man walked into a gun store and undergone a background check, most likely a red flag would have gone up and he wouldn't have gotten a gun. Now a weak minded individual would immediately come up with the arguement well, he would have used a knife or a rock or a loaf of bread to kill him. But of course an intelligent person would dismiss that arguement as moronic.
You can have as many guns as you like, register it and be responsible for it for the life of the gun. If that gun is involved in a crime YOU do the time. No tired excuses for it being sold but you have no paperwork (as in private sales), you lost it, it was stolen.

[No Longer Amused 25]

07:17 PM on 11/02/2011

Oh thank goodness! A teabagger candidate to replace Herman Cain!

[Jimbo23]

05:08 PM on 11/02/2011

And ironically only by shooting someone will this clearly disturbed individual get any mental healthcare. Had anyone tried to get him any help ahead of this they would have laughed them out of the office or charged a ridiculous sum. You can thank Ronald Reagan for shutting down our mental health care system as we knew it in the 80's...

[Ahrem Pea]

12:07 AM on 11/03/2011

Isn't it also ironic that Reagan's mental health was shut down by Alzheimer's?

[Lisa Jarhead]

04:37 PM on 11/02/2011

Ten bucks says this guys is a member of the Tea Party.

[RevJimIII]

10:33 PM on 11/02/2011

Sure, sure.. anyone who does anything bad simply must be part of that horrible group of people.. how dare they express their opinions and vote.. the audacity.. the nerve.. there ought to be a law...

[troy fraser]

08:24 AM on 11/05/2011

I bet you dont even have ten bucks!!

[Lisa Jarhead]

09:02 AM on 11/05/2011

What I bet is...that I could care less what you think.

[brokerthanu]

04:08 PM on 11/02/2011

This is no excuse. There are books available on telepathic self-defense.

[danieldgj]

04:41 PM on 11/02/2011

That would require literacy...

[Woodsie]

11:07 PM on 11/02/2011

LOL!! Best line I've read today! : ))

[criz1]

04:08 PM on 11/02/2011

Only in Utah................wait, maybe Texas too............

[Novemberlady1]

03:10 PM on 11/02/2011

Why is he out of jail if he forcibly sexually assaulted a child? Amazing .

[Ted Bouklos]

02:53 PM on 11/02/2011

I heard he got the gun by telepathically convincing a gun dealer at a gun show not to do a background check on him....oh wait.... they DON'T do background checks at gun shows....nevermind...

[danieldgj]

04:22 PM on 11/02/2011

Yet another uninformed post by someone who wants to ban guns. In fact, nearly all gun sales at gun shows DO involve background checks, since licensed dealers conduct nearly all sales at these shows. If you had ever bothered to go to a gun show, you would know this. It is only those rare sales by private individuals at such shows that lack background checks--and those are few, since it doesn't make economic sense to purchase a table at one of these shows unless you have the stock of merchandise that only licensed dealers can carry. The "gun show loophole" is recycled endlessly by liberals to scare the uninformed--including you, obviously--into believing that lots of unregulated sales happen this way. Studies of felons, tracking where they bought their guns, blew this nonsense out of the water years ago. They don't buy guns at gun shows.

[Ted Bouklos]

05:05 PM on 11/02/2011

no i don't want to ban guns. I have two .45's, A P38, a Springfield and an AK... You seem to be the one that is uninformed. unlicensed dealers make up between 25% - 50% of sellers at shows and all flea market sellers are unlicensed. All you need to be an "unlisensed dealer" is that selling guns isn't your primary source of income. And that you didn't buy the guns with the intent to sell them. It's very vague and hard to prove .Also, you're whole "doesn't make economic sense" argument also falls flat. It only costs between $40-$80 to rent a table. very nominal fee when you're selling guns worth hundreds if not thousands of dollars. Your study on felons and where they get their guns doesn't take into account of other gun violence not perpetrated by felons. studies have found that 10% of guns used in crime by juveniles were sold either at a gun show or a flea market.
Three of the guns used in the Columbine school shooting 11 years ago came from a gun show..The wacko at Va Tech got his guns at a gun show.... you want to tell those victims that killers don't get their guns from gun shows?

[No Longer Amused 25]

07:23 PM on 11/02/2011

"They don't buy guns at gun shows." Pretty silly and clearly wrong. What do they buy at gun shows, popcorn? BTW: I'm a hard core union liberal who has been in the Pipefitters, the Teamsters and the Steelworkers unions and I'm a Vietnam combat vet and a gun owner. You baggers who think liberals can't shoot are going to be in for a shock one of these days.

[TexRancher]

09:55 AM on 11/03/2011

Get educated: You're showing your anti-gun ignorance! Individuals do not have to do background checks to sell a gun from their private collection. On the other hand, licensed firearm dealers (With an FFL) must do background checks on all sales, gunshows included!

So stop bad mouthing gunshows!

[bunnieman]

11:17 AM on 11/03/2011

You cleverly forgot to mention that individuals at gun shows do not have to perform background checks to sell a gun from their "collection". The presence of such sellers render gun shows supermarkets for restricted buyers with a pocketful of cash.