Rhode Island Felon Pleads Guilty To Firearm Charge After 2021 Seacoast Shooting: Follow-Up

CONCORD, NH — A man from Providence, Rhode Island, pleaded guilty to being a felon possessing a firearm after shooting two people in Seabrook in November 2021.

Garrito “Tony” Fort, 39, pleaded guilty to the single count on Monday and will be sentenced in January 2024. He faces up to a decade in prison and a $250,000 fine. After serving his time, Fort could be placed on three years of supervised release.

Fort, on Nov. 1, 2021, believed another man scratched his car the previous evening and went to confront the man while armed with a Taurus 9 mm pistol. He confronted the man for around three minutes. Two witnesses attempted to separate Fort and the other man.

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“One of the witnesses also told Fort to ‘put that gun away,’” according to a press statement. “Fort fired two shots. The first shot seriously injured another man, and the second shot killed the man that Fort thought scratched his car. The shooting was captured on video camera.”

The man who was killed was Christopher Coletti. In February 2022, the attorney general’s office determined Fort acted in self-defense and chose not to prosecute him on a homicide charge.

Fort was later indicted on first-degree assault with a deadly weapon, convicted felons, and two criminal threatening with a deadly weapon charges and felon in possession in Rockingham County Superior Court. The felon in possession charge was nolle prossed and moved to federal court.

Fort will be back in Rockingham County Superior Court on Wednesday on the first-degree assault with a deadly weapon, two criminal threatening with a deadly weapon charges, and two felon in possession charges. Jury selection is expected to occur on Nov. 6.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Seabrook Police Department, and New Hampshire State Police led the investigation into the federal charge.

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