Child killed by police shooting at snake.

[Nomad101bc]

They make a great pistol shotgun load specificaly for shooting snakes with your .45 sounds like some rookie who wanted to for once fire his weapon while on duty.

BTW snake control is simple its called a large shovel preferably snow shovel and just use it like a guilotine. Worked great whenever they had rattlers wander on the baseball fields in CA.

 

[hso]

Folks,

It's too soon to actually know anything except the facts of what happened. Predicting how the officers will be treated by the legal system is no more realistic than predicting the turn of a card on the first cut of the deck.

We know the actions of the officers resulted in the death of a child. We can not predict the future nor how the family will act or what the legal system will do with respect to the officers. Only time will tell. Anybody that does is either a bigot or a fool and is wasting their time here instead of the betting halls, lottery kiosks and stock market.

The majority of folks at THR are more interested in the facts and understand that those will come out as the situation continues to develop. Those that can't wait for the facts play the same game as the pointless newsies who have to fill airtime regardless of whether they have anything valuable to say.:banghead:

 

[Lucky]

Johnbt When members cry for justice be done for other criminals in other crimes, it's not bashing. But when it's someone you can relate to, it suddenly is bashing.

And 'mistake'. What a quaint way to put it.

But feel free to call this bashing too and demand the thread be closed yet again. Eventually people will catch on that something's funny.

I don't. I'd bet they're just like me - tired of the whining and the multiple posts piling on whenever an officer makes a mistake. You know you've seen it. A post states an officer did something or other and then there are 15 or 20 posts about all the "blankety-blank-dadgummed worthless cops." That's just plain old pointless bashing that adds nothing to the discussion.

 

[brentn]

HOLY ****

This is crazy. I know what they were thinking, they got lazy and instead of calling some wildlife officials to get the snake out, they thought it would be fun to try and shoot it out... I'm sure they had no idea what could have happened, but I gaurentee you that they are ****ting themselves right now waiting to find out whats going to happen to them when they get back to work.

 

[randyman_ar]

Just put my 2 year old Grand Daughter to bed a couple of hours ago. Man this breaks my heart!! I feel so bad for the child and his family. But I also feel bad for the policeman responsible. Its not like he was a gangbanger! Just had a total lapse of common sense!

 

[silverlance]

this is SLIGHTLY off topic. but when you guys are hunting, do you actually trust your snake boots to protect you?

in the case of this tragedy, could the LEOs have legitimately said, "sorry ma'm, you're going to have to deal with it on your own"?

 

[Bazooka Joe71]

It doesn't say in the news article, but I believe someone on here said the bullet went through the ceiling, and dropped and hit the boy?

If this is the case, then why did the grandfather say it entered the front of hit head and exited out of the back?

 

[iiibdsiil]

I have 2 concerns here.

First, they PEOPLE involved need to be charged accordingly.

Second, as trained "professionals", they (he, whatever) should be held to a HIGHER standard, and charged with a higher crime. Everyone makes mistakes, but if police are granted special firearms privileges over the normal citizen, then they should be forced to accept a higher responsibility, including higher jail time for an offense relating to that.

And because of the recent "felony murder" arrests, couldn't the other cop be charged with felony murder? Or are police authorized to discharge a firearm in city limits for a silly reason as such?

My heart goes out to the boys family. I can't have pity for someone that makes a mistake as negligent as the other PEOPLE involved.

 

[Reyn]

couldn't the other cop be charged with felony murder?

No. Surely you are not implying he should.

 

[JR719]

I'm watching this one.... It happened about 2 1/2 hours south of me!

Why were there two Officers there? Was it a 2 man car? Was one a rook being broken in? Who know's what was going on there as details have not been released.

I feel really bad for the family of the child, I also feel bad for the Officer as he has to live with his decision for the rest of his life. Not only that, but the legal reprocussions that will follow.

 

[jeep-2]

3 known facts
cop fired his gun to kill the snake
a five yr old boy is dead
if a non cop had done the same thing, they would be charged with manslaughter and shotgunned with many other lessor offences, firing in town limits, ect.

maybe cops should have more common sence and less training.

 

[WeThePeople]

Interesting. I started a thread a while back about a retired LEO in Louisville, KY shooting - purposefully - a CCDWer and the thread was closed as soon as folks started speculating.

 

[Deanimator]

I suspect they had a 12 ga. in the car......

Maybe, maybe not. I was recently truly surprised to learn that the Chicago PD do not have shotguns in their cars.

 

[carpenter]

someone on here said the bullet went through the ceiling, and dropped and hit the boy?

If this is the case, then why did the grandfather say it entered the front of hit head and exited out of the back?

You're probably referring to me. I was the one who posted the original article that got the thread reopened. The news said the LEOs shot the snake which was in the rafters (of the house). That would mean that the LEOs were in the house. The snake was in the house. The LEOs shot the snake and the bullet would have to travel through a) the snake, b) the roof sheathing and c) the shingles. Assuming the officers fired up into the roof at an angle perpendicular to the earth's surface, then the bullet would ascend until it reached zero velocity.

At that point it would begin its descent back to earth. It accelerates at a rate of 32 feet per second per second until it reached terminal velocity. That's the fastest it's going to travel with the forces of air, humidity, friction, etc, working to slow it down.

Given that scenario, I just found it hard to believe something with as little mass as a handgun bullet would have enough energy to do what the news described.

But it now seems that the snake may have been in a birdhouse outside. If that's the case then the officers didn't fire perpendicular to the earth's surface. They fired at an angle. That would be why the first shot hit the water in the pond.

A bullet fired at such an angle would have plenty of energy to penetrate a child's skull.

 

[carpenter]

Update on the story. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,292168,00.html

The snake was in a tree! Not in the rafters (as per the original story). What on earth are they doing shooting a handgun bullet into a tree?!

 

[JohnBT]

"And 'mistake'. What a quaint way to put it."

Quaint? Huh? Let's look at the definition of the word mistake.

"a wrong action attributable to bad judgment or ignorance or inattention; "he made a bad mistake""

Next week if you have time we can work on the definition of the word bashing.

John

 

[hso]

We'll see if there's anything more to be said once some additional facts come out about this, but predictions on the legal process are a waste of time on this.

 

[XavierBreath]

I received a comment on my blog from Austin Haley's mother:

My name is Renee Haley....the proud mother of Austin Haley who was shot and killed by a Noble Police Officer. I want to mention two very important things that have been somewhat forgotten in the blogs. First, the THREE police officers who reported to the house of the snake, decided to literally pick up their feet, step over a hoe, rake, and hedge clippers placed directly inside the gate before the police officers arrived to shoot the snake. The second fact is this was not a poisonous snake, but a rat snake that is very similar to a king snake. It was five feet long, but it could not get out of the small opening in the bird house because it had eaten bird eggs or birds. It was stuck and harmless! I do forgive the police officer who shot my precious son, but I do believe there have to be consequences of his behavior. Please keep us in your prayers...God bless all of you.

Renee

 

[XavierBreath]

AP - 9/7/2007 2:45 PM - Updated 9/7/2007 2:48 PM
NORMAN, Okla. (AP) -- Second-degree manslaughter charges will be filed against two Noble police officers involved in the accidental fatal shooting of a 5-year-old boy, a district attorney said Friday.

Austin Gabriel Haley was killed Aug. 3 after one of the officers fired his .40-caliber handgun at a snake in a birdhouse outside a home in Noble. The boy was standing at a dock at a pond near the house when he was hit.

District Attorney Greg Mashburn identified the officers as Brad Rogers and Shawn Richardson. They would face up to four years in prison if convicted of the felony charge.

Mashburn said he researched the law extensively, visited the shooting scene twice and met with family members of the boy before making his decision.

"I take no pleasure in this decision," he said. "Although this shooting is accidental, with reasonable care and caution, the death of a child could have been avoided."

The boy's parents, who were at the news conference where Mashburn made his announcement, said they supported the prosecutor's decision.

The officer who fired the shot believed the snake to be a rattlesnake, but it turned out to be a harmless black rat snake that is often mistaken for a dangerous snake, Noble City Manager Bob Wade said.

The city of Noble had no animal control officer at the time of the shooting.

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