Preacherman
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From the Cincinnati Advertiser, 11/21/03 (http://www.cincypost.com/2003/11/21/newgun112103.html):
Rifle fires unexpectedly; dad shot
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Shelly Whitehead
Post staff reporter
Investigators are still trying to piece together how Austin Woosley's prized 17th birthday gift -- a newly purchased and presumably unloaded rifle -- fired a bullet into his dad's leg as the two drove home from a Florence sporting goods store.
Mike Woosley, a 43-year-old corporate jet inspector, lost control of the car when the bullet slammed into his thigh that afternoon. Seconds later, he and his son were waist-deep in water after their family van careened off Big Bone Road and landed in a Union farm pond.
How the bullet that hit Mike Woosley got into the chamber of a brand-new gun still in the box is a question that is baffling police, the gun manufacturer and the Woosleys.
Today as the Woosleys retell their Oct. 14 experience, they seem astonished by their relative good fortune. Though Mike Woosley will soon have surgery to remove six bullet fragments from his right thigh, and the family's van is a total loss, the two are thankful things are not much worse.
"He could have shot himself," Mike Woosley said, glancing at his son in the Woosley's Union home.
The words strike a painful chord with his son.
"That's what really is on my mind. What if it hit him in the head? What if it had hit Mycah?" Austin asks, referring to his 5-year-old sister, who had begged to go along that day.
Questions like those make ballistic test results on the Marlin .17-caliber rifle all the more important to the Woosleys. Still, tests on the weapon at the Kentucky State Police Central Lab in Frankfort can only determine whether the firearm works properly.
Boone County Sheriff's Department investigators are now calling the shooting an "accident." But when deputies first arrived at the scene that Tuesday, they didn't know whether the shooting was accidental, intentional or self-inflicted.
Both father and son tell a story of a freak accident that everyone from federal firearms agents, state ballistics experts and Boone County investigators say they have never heard even alleged before.
Two days before the shooting, Mike Woosley bought a Savage .17-caliber rifle for his son's December birthday. Austin, however, changed his mind, opting to exchange the Savage for the more expensive Marlin.
The two said when they went to exchange rifles at Dick's Sporting Goods in Florence Oct. 14, the store was filled with customers. But after completing the mandatory background checks and firearms license paperwork, the Woosleys said the clerk brought the boxed $240 Marlin "varmint" rifle from the stock room.
Mike Woosley said no one opened the box to check the serial number on the gun before the purchase was completed and the clerk walked the boxed gun out the business' door, as required. Representatives of Dick's Sporting Goods did not return calls to answer questions about the incident -- whether the gun had been a returned item or whether employees are required to check serial numbers on the gun itself, rather than merely the gun box.
As the Woosleys headed home, Mike thought their only challenge was going to be telling his wife about the birthday purchase for his son. Father and son made a plan to tuck the purchase away until Austin's birthday, allowing some time to break the news to mom.
Austin "wanted to see the gun one more time since Mom didn't know we'd bought it," said Mike.
"So he reaches between the seats and puts the box in his lap and opens it up. I said, 'That's a beautiful gun.' -- Then I saw he put his hand in there and it went off. -- It hit in my right thigh. The bullet hit the bone and it was going so fast it went to pieces."
After swerving to avoid a tree and an oncoming truck, the minivan sped across a field and into a farm pond at the intersection of Big Bone Road and Rice Pike. It was only then that Mike realized he'd been shot.
Austin recalls his dad's deep moans and his own panic as the van filled with water. But the soft-spoken, home-schooled teen-ager regained enough composure to find the cell phone and call for help.
"Austin got the cell phone and called 911. You were screaming," Mike said, smiling at his worried-looking son.
"He said, 'I shot my dad! I shot my dad!' He was screaming to them. -- I was gushing blood, just like a stream of water coming out when the cops came. -- And they took him away and separated us at the scene."
Today Austin admits he wanted to touch the gun that day, but he has no recollection of touching the trigger. Neither Mike nor Austin say they had any idea there was ammunition in the rifle, as they now allege.
Boone County Sheriff's Department Crime Bureau Commander Maj. Jack Banks said an unopened box of ammunition was found in the van. Investigators say there were no rounds in the rifle and no casings were found.
"We sent it (the rifle) to the lab to determine if it's in working order," Banks said. "As far as knowing whether the bullet was in the weapon when it was purchased, I don' t know whether we'll ever be able to determine that.
"We have victims alleging a round was in the weapon. -- When you're talking ballistics (tests) -- they couldn't link that specific round to that specific gun. -- There's no way to do that. -- There's no rifling."
Kentucky State Police say ballistics testing on the firearms at their central lab will likely take months due to the lab's considerable case backlog from across the state. And even when complete, such lab tests can only provide very specific information, largely concerning the functioning of the weapon.
"They'll run the gun through the paces -- to make sure it's operating properly," said Kentucky State Police Sgt. Phil Crumpton.
"According to the lab person, this is the first case they've heard of -- saying something was left in (a new gun's) chamber."
Many other investigators and weapons experts agreed the case was a first -- investigating whether an unopened boxed gun was sold with a live round in the chamber. Boone County Sheriff's Department detectives, veteran Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agents, and even an executive with the company that manufactured the rifle in question said they had never heard of a similar incident.
"To my knowledge, a loaded gun never left here," said Tony Aeschliman, marketing manager for Marlin Firearms Co. in North Haven, Conn.
"They (newly manufactured guns) get fired -- proof-fired and function-fired -- before they leave the building. But there are several steps after that where rods are run down the barrel of the gun to make sure they aren't loaded. --
"It's virtually impossible for a gun to get out of here with anything in it. -- Also, because he took the carton from the store without opening it (and) -- they're not hermetically sealed, anyone could have handled it before that."
Aeschliman said Dick's Sporting Goods stores receive Marlin Firearms Co. merchandise directly from the factory, with no intermediary stops or distributors along the way.
Rifle fires unexpectedly; dad shot
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Shelly Whitehead
Post staff reporter
Investigators are still trying to piece together how Austin Woosley's prized 17th birthday gift -- a newly purchased and presumably unloaded rifle -- fired a bullet into his dad's leg as the two drove home from a Florence sporting goods store.
Mike Woosley, a 43-year-old corporate jet inspector, lost control of the car when the bullet slammed into his thigh that afternoon. Seconds later, he and his son were waist-deep in water after their family van careened off Big Bone Road and landed in a Union farm pond.
How the bullet that hit Mike Woosley got into the chamber of a brand-new gun still in the box is a question that is baffling police, the gun manufacturer and the Woosleys.
Today as the Woosleys retell their Oct. 14 experience, they seem astonished by their relative good fortune. Though Mike Woosley will soon have surgery to remove six bullet fragments from his right thigh, and the family's van is a total loss, the two are thankful things are not much worse.
"He could have shot himself," Mike Woosley said, glancing at his son in the Woosley's Union home.
The words strike a painful chord with his son.
"That's what really is on my mind. What if it hit him in the head? What if it had hit Mycah?" Austin asks, referring to his 5-year-old sister, who had begged to go along that day.
Questions like those make ballistic test results on the Marlin .17-caliber rifle all the more important to the Woosleys. Still, tests on the weapon at the Kentucky State Police Central Lab in Frankfort can only determine whether the firearm works properly.
Boone County Sheriff's Department investigators are now calling the shooting an "accident." But when deputies first arrived at the scene that Tuesday, they didn't know whether the shooting was accidental, intentional or self-inflicted.
Both father and son tell a story of a freak accident that everyone from federal firearms agents, state ballistics experts and Boone County investigators say they have never heard even alleged before.
Two days before the shooting, Mike Woosley bought a Savage .17-caliber rifle for his son's December birthday. Austin, however, changed his mind, opting to exchange the Savage for the more expensive Marlin.
The two said when they went to exchange rifles at Dick's Sporting Goods in Florence Oct. 14, the store was filled with customers. But after completing the mandatory background checks and firearms license paperwork, the Woosleys said the clerk brought the boxed $240 Marlin "varmint" rifle from the stock room.
Mike Woosley said no one opened the box to check the serial number on the gun before the purchase was completed and the clerk walked the boxed gun out the business' door, as required. Representatives of Dick's Sporting Goods did not return calls to answer questions about the incident -- whether the gun had been a returned item or whether employees are required to check serial numbers on the gun itself, rather than merely the gun box.
As the Woosleys headed home, Mike thought their only challenge was going to be telling his wife about the birthday purchase for his son. Father and son made a plan to tuck the purchase away until Austin's birthday, allowing some time to break the news to mom.
Austin "wanted to see the gun one more time since Mom didn't know we'd bought it," said Mike.
"So he reaches between the seats and puts the box in his lap and opens it up. I said, 'That's a beautiful gun.' -- Then I saw he put his hand in there and it went off. -- It hit in my right thigh. The bullet hit the bone and it was going so fast it went to pieces."
After swerving to avoid a tree and an oncoming truck, the minivan sped across a field and into a farm pond at the intersection of Big Bone Road and Rice Pike. It was only then that Mike realized he'd been shot.
Austin recalls his dad's deep moans and his own panic as the van filled with water. But the soft-spoken, home-schooled teen-ager regained enough composure to find the cell phone and call for help.
"Austin got the cell phone and called 911. You were screaming," Mike said, smiling at his worried-looking son.
"He said, 'I shot my dad! I shot my dad!' He was screaming to them. -- I was gushing blood, just like a stream of water coming out when the cops came. -- And they took him away and separated us at the scene."
Today Austin admits he wanted to touch the gun that day, but he has no recollection of touching the trigger. Neither Mike nor Austin say they had any idea there was ammunition in the rifle, as they now allege.
Boone County Sheriff's Department Crime Bureau Commander Maj. Jack Banks said an unopened box of ammunition was found in the van. Investigators say there were no rounds in the rifle and no casings were found.
"We sent it (the rifle) to the lab to determine if it's in working order," Banks said. "As far as knowing whether the bullet was in the weapon when it was purchased, I don' t know whether we'll ever be able to determine that.
"We have victims alleging a round was in the weapon. -- When you're talking ballistics (tests) -- they couldn't link that specific round to that specific gun. -- There's no way to do that. -- There's no rifling."
Kentucky State Police say ballistics testing on the firearms at their central lab will likely take months due to the lab's considerable case backlog from across the state. And even when complete, such lab tests can only provide very specific information, largely concerning the functioning of the weapon.
"They'll run the gun through the paces -- to make sure it's operating properly," said Kentucky State Police Sgt. Phil Crumpton.
"According to the lab person, this is the first case they've heard of -- saying something was left in (a new gun's) chamber."
Many other investigators and weapons experts agreed the case was a first -- investigating whether an unopened boxed gun was sold with a live round in the chamber. Boone County Sheriff's Department detectives, veteran Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agents, and even an executive with the company that manufactured the rifle in question said they had never heard of a similar incident.
"To my knowledge, a loaded gun never left here," said Tony Aeschliman, marketing manager for Marlin Firearms Co. in North Haven, Conn.
"They (newly manufactured guns) get fired -- proof-fired and function-fired -- before they leave the building. But there are several steps after that where rods are run down the barrel of the gun to make sure they aren't loaded. --
"It's virtually impossible for a gun to get out of here with anything in it. -- Also, because he took the carton from the store without opening it (and) -- they're not hermetically sealed, anyone could have handled it before that."
Aeschliman said Dick's Sporting Goods stores receive Marlin Firearms Co. merchandise directly from the factory, with no intermediary stops or distributors along the way.
) somebody put their finger(s) in the trigger quard while the gun was pointed in an unsafe direction. Duh.
:banghead: 
