Drizzt
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Dad dies teaching son about guns
By John C. Ensslin, Rocky Mountain News
March 6, 2003
A Lakewood man was shot to death Wednesday while he was trying to teach his 13-year-son to handle a gun safely.
The boy had the gun and didn't realize it was loaded, police said.
His two younger sisters, ages 7 and 9, were in the room and watched as the handgun discharged, hitting their father in the head, Lakewood police spokeswoman Stacie Oulton said.
The 36-year-old father was declared dead at St. Anthony Central Hospital.
The children are with their mother, who was not home at the time of the shooting, Oulton said.
The shooting happened about 4 p.m. in the 100 block of South Kendall Street.
"The (911) call apparently came in from the 13-year-old," Oulton said.
Police withheld the name of the family because of the boy's age.
Neighbors were stunned when they learned of the shooting.
Teri Moore watched as the boy and his two sisters left the home with police officers.
"It was very difficult. You could just see it on his face."
Moore described her block as part of a tightly knit neighborhood where people know one another. Moore's friend said called it a "Norman Rockwell neighborhood" because everyone talks to one another.
Now that neighborhood is sharing in the pain.
"We're just feeling very strongly for the children," Moore said.
Down the block, neighbor Michael O'Kelly said his children and the victim's children are friends.
"That's sad," O'Kelly said of the accident. "The father was trying to do the right thing, and the wrong thing happened."
O'Kelly said he is a gun owner, although he does not have any guns now because his children are ages 7 and 4.
But when they grow older, he expects to show them how to handle a gun safely, much as his father and great-uncle did with him.
Oulton said police recovered several guns from the victim's home.
The family stayed elsewhere Wednesday night.
"We do have our victim advocates working with them," she said.
Oulton said police generally advise that gun-safety classes with qualified instructors are the best and safest way to educate children on handling firearms.
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I know, I know ..... the gun didn't just 'discharge', the trigger was pulled somehow, someway... but I can't help but feel sorry for these kids. They had to see this happen. It just ain't right...
3 more added to the 'Guns Are Evil' ranks.
By John C. Ensslin, Rocky Mountain News
March 6, 2003
A Lakewood man was shot to death Wednesday while he was trying to teach his 13-year-son to handle a gun safely.
The boy had the gun and didn't realize it was loaded, police said.
His two younger sisters, ages 7 and 9, were in the room and watched as the handgun discharged, hitting their father in the head, Lakewood police spokeswoman Stacie Oulton said.
The 36-year-old father was declared dead at St. Anthony Central Hospital.
The children are with their mother, who was not home at the time of the shooting, Oulton said.
The shooting happened about 4 p.m. in the 100 block of South Kendall Street.
"The (911) call apparently came in from the 13-year-old," Oulton said.
Police withheld the name of the family because of the boy's age.
Neighbors were stunned when they learned of the shooting.
Teri Moore watched as the boy and his two sisters left the home with police officers.
"It was very difficult. You could just see it on his face."
Moore described her block as part of a tightly knit neighborhood where people know one another. Moore's friend said called it a "Norman Rockwell neighborhood" because everyone talks to one another.
Now that neighborhood is sharing in the pain.
"We're just feeling very strongly for the children," Moore said.
Down the block, neighbor Michael O'Kelly said his children and the victim's children are friends.
"That's sad," O'Kelly said of the accident. "The father was trying to do the right thing, and the wrong thing happened."
O'Kelly said he is a gun owner, although he does not have any guns now because his children are ages 7 and 4.
But when they grow older, he expects to show them how to handle a gun safely, much as his father and great-uncle did with him.
Oulton said police recovered several guns from the victim's home.
The family stayed elsewhere Wednesday night.
"We do have our victim advocates working with them," she said.
Oulton said police generally advise that gun-safety classes with qualified instructors are the best and safest way to educate children on handling firearms.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I know, I know ..... the gun didn't just 'discharge', the trigger was pulled somehow, someway... but I can't help but feel sorry for these kids. They had to see this happen. It just ain't right...
3 more added to the 'Guns Are Evil' ranks.
