Reports narrate teen's shooting

Teddy Niziol's friends sat around him in his truck, chatting, documents say. Moments later, he lay dying.

By TAMARA LUSH and CHRISTOPHER GOFFARD

© St. Petersburg Times, published February 26, 2000

NEW PORT RICHEY -- Teddy Niziol, playing for laughs, told his sixth-period English class he planned to die young.

When a teacher asked the 16-year-old Ridgewood High School student about his career plans as part of an assignment, Niziol replied he didn't need a career because he wasn't going to live much past 18. He lived on the edge, the teenager added, and would die with lots of money.

"I think it was a little bit of bravado," said the teacher, Bob Selfe, who thinks Niziol was trying to cover for not doing the assignment. "He liked to get a laugh from the class."

A week later, Niziol lay bleeding in the high school parking lot from a .22-caliber bullet fired from a handgun that authorities say he stole in a spate of burglaries. His best friend, Steven Moschella, has been charged with manslaughter.

Niziol's classroom remarks emerged, along with other details of the Jan. 19 shooting, in documents released Friday by the Pasco-Pinellas State Attorney's Office.

The documents detail the last minutes of Niziol's life.

According to the reports:

After the final school bell rang about 2:15 p.m., five teens piled into Niziol's white, Toyota 4Runner.

Niziol was driving in the slow crawl of traffic leading out of the Ridgewood parking lot. His sister, Nicolette, was in the passenger seat. Moschella was sitting in the back seat, behind Niziol. Two friends of Teddy's, Justin Isner and Michelle Woods, also were sitting in back.

There were several conversations going on at once; a couple of people were looking at a CD player.

Another student, Kristofer Kirby, walked up to the truck, which was stopped in traffic, stepped on its running board and leaned into the truck's window. Someone, said Nicolette Niziol, said, "Hey, show Kirby that gun."

Niziol pulled a black case out of his pants pocket and passed it over his head to Moschella, Kirby said.

Moschella opened the case and showed Kirby the black gun. It fit in the palm of Moschella's hand.

Isner said the gun didn't look real to him. "It looked like a little cap gun or something," Isner said.

Nicolette Niziol saw the gun's barrel pointed at her.

"Steve, don't point that (expletive) at me," she screamed.

A split second later, a shot was fired.

"Oh my God, what just happened? Did you shoot my brother?" Nicolette said.

Then silence.

Teddy opened his door and fell out.

Everyone noticed that there was blood on the back of Teddy's seat and on the back of Teddy's T-shirt.

The bullet had entered Teddy's back through the seat, went into his right lung, perforated his heart and came to rest in his breast bone.

The other four got out of the truck. Moschella urged his friends to get back in, and everyone tried to quiet each other.

Niziol's friends, according to the reports, thought Teddy was joking.

"Everybody thought it didn't hit (Teddy) and that is why they said be quiet because they thought (Teddy) was just messing around," a detective quoted Nicolette Niziol as saying.

-- Staff writer Tamara Lush is the police reporter in Pasco County. She can be reached in west Pasco at 869-6245 or (800) 333-7505, extension 6245. Her e-mail address is lush@sptimes.com.

-- Staff writer Christopher Goffard covers courts in west Pasco County. He can be reached in west Pasco at 869-6236 or (800) 333-7505, extension 6236. His e-mail address is goffard@sptimes.com.

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