Father who shot son charged with firearms violation

[Jeff White]

Doesn't look good for the father. Could be facing federal charges too....


http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/ne...C5B6A042EBC0443A862572040017C1F2?OpenDocument

Father who shot his son is charged with firearms violation
By Joel Currier and Robert Kelly
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
10/10/2006

UPDATE at 5:02 p.m.:

A Washington County, Mo., man who shot and critically injured his 6-year-old son while cleaning a rifle was charged today with illegal possesion of a firearm.

Ricky Rulo Jr., 29, was charged with one count of felony probation violation for possessing the rifle that apparently discharged while he was cleaning it on Tuesday. The bullet struck and injured Rulo’s son, Shawn.

Shawn Rulo remained in critical condition late Wednesday after surgery for a head wound at Cardinal Glennon Children’s Medical Center in St. Louis.
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The shooting incident occurred Tuesday afternoon at Ricky Rulo’s mobile home at Cadet, a small town in Washington County, about 60 miles southwest of St. Louis.

Washington County Sheriff Kevin Schroeder said Rulo should not have had the rifle, because he was on probation for a felony drug possession conviction. Rulo was being held Wednesday at the County Jail in Potosi.

Schroeder also said authorities were trying to determine exactly how the shot that injured Shawn Rulo was fired. He said there were some "inconsistencies" in Ricky Rulo’s account that he was in a bedroom cleaning the weapon when it discharged. He told authorities that the bullet went through a wall and struck his son, who was outside.

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Our earlier story:

A 6-year-old boy was shot and seriously injured Tuesday in the small Washington County town of Cadet when a rifle his father was cleaning apparently discharged accidentally, authorities said.

The boy, identified by his grandparents as Shawn Rulo, is a first-grader at Potosi Elementary School. Shawn's grandparents, Ricky Rulo Sr. and his wife, JoAnn, said their grandson was shot once in the head.

Shawn was flown by helicopter to Cardinal Glennon Children's Medical Center in St. Louis. Outside the hospital Tuesday night, his grandparents said he was undergoing surgery and in critical condition. A hospital spokesman said he could not release any information about the child Tuesday night.

Shawn's grandparents said the boy's father, Ricky Rulo Jr., is a plumber who is living with them in a mobile home Cadet. They said their son was home alone with Shawn and told him to walk outside on the porch while he unloaded his deer hunting rifle.

The Washington County Sheriff's Department said a bullet from the rifle traveled through a wall and a door frame of the mobile home before striking the boy about 2:30 p.m.

Ricky Rulo Jr., 29, was being held for questioning at the Washington County jail. No charges were filed.

Shawn's grandparents said Ricky Rulo Jr. is divorced. Shawn had spent the last two weeks at his grandparents' home.

"That boy means everything to his dad," JoAnn Rulo said. "There ain't no way he did this on purpose."

Cadet is a town of about 100 people, about 60 miles southwest of St. Louis. It is south of Washington State Park.

 

[Standing Wolf]

A 6-year-old boy was shot and seriously injured Tuesday in the small Washington County town of Cadet when a rifle his father was cleaning apparently discharged accidentally, authorities said.

Those "authorities" apparently don't have a clue about the workings of firearms.

 

[1911Tuner]

Discharge

Tragic, and as I wing a prayer in the right direction for the youngster's full recovery...I have to ask: Why in blue bloody hell did he have a loaded hunting rifle in a mobile home!? Did he not understand that even a .30-30
can penetrate two or three trailers endways?

The drug conviction notwithstanding...the guy is an idiot. Maybe he was trying to unload the rifle while under the influence of his "product."



Sorry...

 

[TX1911fan]

Cleaning is a euphamism for "screwing around and not paying attention."

 

[Jeff White]

More info

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/ne...8F2019C9196AA379862572050014AEA2?OpenDocument

Father jailed in shooting of boy
By Laura Girresch and Robert Kelly
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
10/11/2006

The father and grandfather of a 6-year-old Washington County boy who was seriously wounded when the father's rifle discharged were charged Wednesday with probation violations for possessing the weapon.

Ricky Rulo Jr., 29, told authorities that the rifle accidentally fired and the shot struck his son while he was unloading the weapon Tuesday at the home where he lived with his parents in the small, remote town of Cadet in eastern Washington County. He was arrested Wednesday morning for being a felon in possession of a firearm.

Rulo's father, Ricky Rulo Sr., was arrested on the same charge. Both men were being held without bond at the Washington County Jail in Potosi.

Both men had been on probation for felony drug convictions.

The shooting Tuesday left Shawn Rulo in the hospital with life-threatening injuries. He was in critical condition late Wednesday at Cardinal Glennon Children's Medical Center in St. Louis with a head wound.

Capt. Shannon Thompson of the Washington County Sheriff's Department said it wasn't clear which of the two men owned the rifle that caused the injury.

"Either way, neither one is supposed to be in possession of a firearm," he said.

Authorities are continuing to investigate the shooting and say additional charges are possible.

Members of Rulo Jr.'s family said he had sent Shawn to the back porch of their mobile home while he was unloading his deer-hunting rifle in the master bedroom. They said the weapon then discharged, sending a bullet through a door frame and a wall and striking Shawn in the head.

But Sheriff Kevin Schroeder is questioning this version of events.

Schroeder said, "I can't say it was strictly an accident, or if it was reckless."

He said the bullet struck Shawn near his left temple and exited his head near the right temple, and that he had surgery Tuesday night.

A hospital spokesman would not confirm the injuries or the surgery, citing patient privacy concerns, but he did say that Shawn's injuries were life-threatening.

How the gun fired isn't clear, the sheriff said.

"That's what we're trying to find out. That's one of the inconsistencies," Schroeder said.

Evidence such as the bullet, its trajectory, where it entered the wall and ended up, are "just kind of not matching up," Schroeder said.

On Wednesday, about 20 classmates of Shawn's at Potosi Elementary School made get-well cards and wrote him letters.

Still, Kristi Derby, the school's principal, said, "It's hard for little ones to understand the fullness of this."

Derby said Shawn loved to talk about four-wheelers, and he always has a smile on his face.

A man who lives next door to the Rulos, Bob Osia, 56, said he frequently saw Rulo Jr. playing in the yard with his son.

The mobile home in Cadet, an area of about 100 people, is in a wooded rural area in an unincorporated part of the county, off a gravel road and about 60 miles southwest of St. Louis.

The Park Hills Daily Journal and Joel Currier of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.
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[pax]

Poor little boy.

No sympathy for the felons.

pax

 

[Malone LaVeigh]

Doesn't look good for the father.

Oh, I hope it looks very bad for the father.

 

[Jeff White]

Additional

Looks like dad was smoking marijuana while he was handling his rifle
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/ne...F9FB361F9990D2D78625720B00606320?OpenDocument

New charges filed in father's shooting of 6-year-old
ASSOCIATED PRESS
10/18/2006

POTOSI, Mo. (AP) -- New criminal charges have been filed against the father of a 6-year-old eastern Missouri boy who was shot in the head inside his rural Cadet home a week ago, the Washington County prosecutor said Wednesday.

Prosecutor John Rupp said he charged Ricky Lee Rulo Jr., 29, late Tuesday with one count each of endangering the welfare of a child and possessing a firearm while intoxicated.

Rupp said Rulo possessed a loaded firearm after using marijuana.

Rulo is being held without bond on a charge that he violated his probation by having firearms at his rural Washington County home. Rupp said Rulo has a previous drug possession conviction.

Rupp said Rulo was under the influence when his rifle discharged -- sending a bullet through a wall and an aluminum door frame before striking the boy. Shawn Rulo was struck in the head and remains in critical condition at a St. Louis hospital.

Prosecutors say they have ruled the shooting was an accident, but that the gun should not have been in the home in the first place.

Rulo has said he was unloading the rifle when it went off.
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[SoCalShooter]

Unfortunate for the child, but if the guy is an adult and he is a felon and owns a firearm then he should go back to jail.

 

[TallPine]

A tragic example of how gun control laws don't work