Caleb Gannon’s legal issues may be coming to an end, but his medical issues may linger for the rest of his life, his lawyer says.

In Newton District Court on June 26, Gannon, 32, was given pretrial pretrial probation for charging across Washington Street and tackling Scott Hayes, then 47, while Hayes was demonstrating in support of Israel with a half dozen other Zionists on Sept. 12, 2024.

In the scuffle, Gannon was shot once in the abdomen, causing injuries requiring 38 days of hospitalization, including three in a medically induced coma. According to his attorney, Stephen Colella, Gannon’s injuries were “profound. Doctors anticipated he was going to die.”

Many of Gannon’s internal organs were damaged in the shooting, including his liver, spleen, pancreas and intestines. His surgeries left scars from his throat to his pubic area.
While Colella described Gannon as functional, he believes the shooting and ongoing medical treatment will have physical and psychological consequences.

“Fortunately, the young guy came back, but there isn’t anything that isn’t compromised,” he said. “Obviously, he’s going to be dealing with these issues for the rest of his life, and as he gets older, they’re certainly going to have more impact. Emotionally, once it’s done, he’ll want to put it behind him, but this is a horrible experience. He’s gonna have to get over it.”

Gannon was ultimately charged with assault and battery on Hayes, who aggravated a previous neck injury in the assault. Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan offered Gannon a deal: pretrial probation with conditions, including that he complete an online course addressing civil discourse, have no contact with Hayes, and comply with mental health evaluation and treatment and/or continue with his current mental health counseling.

Should Gannon abide by the terms of his probation through one year after the incident – Sept. 13, 2025 – the charge against him will be dropped.

At a hearing on June 4, Hayes, who was charged with assault and battery with a deadly weapon in the shooting, also received pretrial probation and had his license to carry a gun suspended. Should he satisfy the conditions of his probation, Hayes will be allowed to apply for the reinstatement of his carry license after Sept. 13.

Had Hayes been convicted of the weapons charge, he would have been disqualified from ever again being licensed to carry a gun in Massachusetts.

Colella is outraged that Gannon and Hayes’s cases had similar outcomes. “The disposition for Hayes is completely out of line for what he did,” he said. “That’s an absurd resolution. It suggests there’s some kind of parity between the two actions of both parties – all at the expense of public safety.”

For not taking the case to trial, Colella faults Ryan for caving into political pressure from Hayes’s supporters and sacrificing the long-term welfare of the public in the interest of short-term political expediency.

Video of the incident shows Gannon first shouting at the peaceful pro-Israel demonstrators, then charging across the busy Newton street and tackling Hayes. As he and Hayes wrestle, the video appears to show two men restraining Gannon by the wrist and the neck before he is shot by Hayes.

Had the case gone to trial, a jury would have decided whether Hayes was in a position where a reasonable person felt that he had no alternative but to use deadly force to defend himself (or a third party) from being killed.

Colella believes Gannon was no threat to Hayes. “Getting tackled in the middle of the day, while you’re surrounded by your buddies, by a guy who clearly doesn’t have a weapon and isn’t throwing punches: You cannot say, ‘I’m about to die.’ He’s about to be inconvenienced,” he said.

Colella said not bringing Hayes’s case to trial encourages armed members of the public to resolve their differences by shooting someone and then arguing they were in fear for their life. “That’s the message that some of these people are going to misinterpret or derive from it,” he said.

“I can’t imagine law enforcement is happy about this,” Colella said. “They know there are nutjobs out there who are going to say, ‘I have the green light. If somebody insults me, I can just say that I’m afraid, and I’m gonna shoot them.’”

Both District Attorney Ryan and Newton Chief of Police George McMains, whose names appeared on the statements announcing the probation deals, declined to comment.