Marine shoots at San Diego bar, bartender and car, police say
A 22-year-old Marine, whose battalion will soon deploy to Afghanistan, was arrested Friday morning on suspicion of going on a shooting rampage after getting drunk and being ejected from a bar in San Diego.
Lance Cpl. Sy Schultheis was arrested by SWAT squad members on felony charges of assault with a deadly weapon, shooting at a vehicle and shooting at an occupied building. He remains in county jail.
After a night of drinking, Schultheis became angry when a bartender in the Palm City-Nestor neighborhood ordered him to leave at the 2 a.m. closing time, police said.
Once outside the bar, he allegedly fired a handgun repeatedly at the bar, the bartender’s car and the bartender. The car was hit seven or eight times, but the bartender escaped harm, police said.
Schultheis was arrested around 9 a.m. without incident when SWAT squad members surrounded his San Diego home. He is assigned to a Camp Pendleton battalion which is set soon to deploy Afghanistan’s Helmand province, the onetime Taliban stronghold.
Witnesses said Schultheis seemed angry at the prospect of deploying to Afghanistan.