New Details In Alleged Attempted Murder By Long Valley Olympian

LONG VALLEY, NJ — "Michael Barisone shot me." That’s what Lauren Kanarak, an accomplished dressage rider living and training on Barisone's farm, said in a 911 call placed several moments after he allegedly shot her twice in the chest, according to an affidavit of probable cause obtained and reviewed by Patch.

Formerly coach and athlete, Kanarak trained under Barisone at the prestigious Barisone Dressage facility in a quiet corner of Long Valley. Barisone now faces two counts of attempted murder after allegedly shooting Kanarak twice in the chest, and trying to shoot at her fiance, identified in court documents as R.G.

A long-simmering conflict between Barisone and Kanarak came to a boil last Wednesday, when Barisone went to the home Kanarak and her fiance rented on Barisone’s Hawthorne Farms, police documents reveal. After a brief conversation with the fiance, Barisone and Kanarak began talking outside of the house to each other, the fiance told police.

It’s not clear what the conversation was about, but it was at this point that Barisone is accused of shooting Kanarak at close range in the chest.

Barisone also attempted to shoot R.G., court documents say, but missed and hit the home instead.

R.G. tackled Barisone, holding him down until police arrived. During the struggle, R.G. broke his wrist. Police say they found R.G. holding Barisone down when they got to the farm, with a black-and-pink handgun underneath Barisone.

Kanarak was taken to Morristown Medical Center with life threatening injuries. She is still in the hospital as of Monday morning, Edward David, a lawyer for the Kanarak family, told Patch.

Barisone was arrested and taken to the Morris County Correctional Facility. "I had a good life," Barisone said several times as he was being handcuffed and led away from his farm, court documents say.

He faces two charges of attempted murder, and two charges of possession of a weapon for unlawful purposes.

• Read More: Olympian Charged With Attempted Murder In Long Valley: MCPO

It’s not clear if Barisone has retained a lawyer. Calls and messages placed to his phone on Thursday were not returned. He will have a pretrial detention hearing on Wednesday morning.

"The [Kanarak] family will have a statement later this week after Mr. Barisone’s bail hearing which we understand will occur later in the week," David said. "There is nothing to say about his [SafeSport] suspension – he shot Lauren—I suppose that speaks for itself." SafeSport is an independent agency that oversees abuse complaints in the national athletic federations that oversee Olympic sports, such as the United States Equestrian Federation.

During Kanarak and R.G.’s time living at Hawthorne farm, Kanarak called police several times for "landlord-tenant related issues," court documents say. Kanarak alluded to those issues in now-private Facebook posts, saying she was being "bullied by a 6-foot-3-inch man," and that these types of issues are what SafeSport was meant for. She said she intended to file a SafeSport complaint against Barisone; SafeSport declined to comment on any specific complaints, citing a privacy policy.

Barisone is currently ineligible for any United States Equestrian Federation events, following an indefinite SafeSport suspension.

Both Kanarak and Barisone are accomplished equestrians. Kanarak had won several national medals, and Barisone was a member of the 2008 United States Olympic team in Beijing. He also coached 2016 Olympic bronze medalist in dressage, Alison Brock.

• Read More: Olympian Barred From Competition After Allegedly Shooting Trainee

Violent crime, particularly murder or attempted murder, is exceedingly rare in Long Valley. The last murder was in 1985, police told Patch, and it’s been a number of years since an attempted murder. The total number of violent crimes for all of 2018 was just 3, according to the most recent FBI Uniform Crime Report statistics. That works out to .16 violent crimes per 1,000 residents last year.