Velure set for October trial in River Falls shooting death

A River Falls man charged in the shooting death of a friend last summer will go to trial in October.

Anthony Palmer Velure, 27, faces felony charges of first-degree reckless homicide and homicide by intoxicated use of a firearm. A four-day trial was set Oct. 30-Nov. 2 in the case during a motion hearing Friday, April 6.

The charges resulted from an incident June 27 at Joshua Kurer’s apartment on Riverside Drive in River Falls.

The criminal complaint alleged Velure shot and killed Kurer, 24, with a .410 round from a multi-caliber handgun that he thought was empty.

Velure, who had served with Kurer in the Armed Forces, admitted to police he had several drinks before he came over to his friend’s apartment at about 10:30 p.m. with the intent to go downtown together.

During the course of trying to persuade Kruer to go out on the town, he took the hand gun that was in the apartment, assumed he emptied all six rounds into his pocket, pointed the gun at Kurer and snapped the trigger on an empty chamber, the criminal complaint said.

He repeated the action when a shotgun round went off and hit Kurer in the chest.

Kurer was pronounced dead when police arrived. Velure told police he and his friend had both pointed firearms at each other in the past when the firearms were empty and had pulled the triggers at least “half a dozen times.”

Tags: crime and courts, river falls, news, crime