UF student dies in gun accident

[Mulliga]

A tragedy for a promising young man. I don't know him, but I was born in Winter Park, I was an IB student, and obviously I'm at UF now. I'm definitely curious as to what happened.

http://www.alligator.org/pt2/051118cops.php

Student dies

By STEPHANIE RODRIGUEZ
Alligator Writer

A UF student died Tuesday of what family members describe as an accident.

Ryan Todd Lacey, 21, a target shooter, was cleaning his gun when he accidentally shot himself, said a close family friend who was not at the scene of the accident.

"Ryan was always someone you can depend on," said childhood friend Lawson Lamar. "A lot of people lost a big part of their lives."

Lacey was born in Orlando on March 20, 1984 to Lisa and Robert Lacey. He is survived by a fiancee, Jennifer Martin, and a brother, Christopher.

Lacey was an all-around athlete, whether he was wakeboarding with his friends or playing lacrosse for his high school, Lamar said.

After graduating from the International Baccalaureate program at Winter Park High School, Lacey fulfilled his lifelong dream to become a Florida Gator.

"He was a Gator fan since elementary school," said childhood friend Travis Powell. "I don't know a day where he didn't wear an orange-and-blue shirt."

Lacey was a building construction major and a leader who inspired those around him.

Growing up, he enjoyed discussing books with family and friends and was interested in contemporary literature.

"It seemed like every time I was with him, he always made the best of situations," Lamar said. "I want him to be remembered for all the positive things that he's done."

The funeral service will be held Monday at St. Michael's Episcopal Church in College Park, 2499 N Westmoreland Drive, Orlando, at 2 p.m.

 

[Sistema1927]

Cleaning a gun is sometimes a euphemism for suicide.

 

[Azrael256]

Sistema, I've heard that as well. While there isn't enough info in that obit to really tell, something tells me that's not what happened. Just a hunch, really.

 

[jsalcedo]

I've witnessed and have had first hand knowledge of many negligent discharges.

The worst time to have a brain fart is when handling a gun.

 

[Henry Bowman]

Cleaning a gun is sometimes a euphemism for suicide.

+1 based on less than full information.

 

[HankB]

I find it very, very hard to accept that a person will shoot himself by accident while "cleaning" his firearm, since the first - and I mean the VERY first - thing you do in the cleaning process is clear the gun.

Note, also, that fatal "accidents" usually take violation of more than just one of the Four Rules . . .

 

[P95Carry]

Hank - my thinking exactly.

Most all safety rules need broken IMO for this to happen - which does suggest less of the ''accident'' factor.

Prep'ing for cleaning is the time when all safety rules need rigidly applied - until in fact gun is field stripped and cleaning proper can take place.

This is sad and tragic but - carries a smell of unfresh fish.

 

[hillbilly]

I also know from a situation that I was connected to that sometimes suicidal people engage in a ritualistic cleaning of the gun they shoot themselves with.

Happened at the U of Arkansas with a guy I was an R.A. with.

He sat under some bushes at the Greek Theater on campus. He ceremonially cleaned his .357 magnum, and then he shot himself with it.

Sad.

hillbilly

 

[rock jock]

I find it very, very hard to accept that a person will shoot himself by accident while "cleaning" his firearm

Then you haven't read many of the stories here on THR and TFL where that exact thing has happened. There are several causes for this which do not involve suicidal tendencies at all, but nevertheless are negligent in nature. Examples:

- shooter becoming momentarily distracted during the process of clearing the gun, then resuming their work thinking the gun has been cleared successfully
- racking a slide but not visually inspecting the chamber and then dry firing to drop the hammer
- the gun slips because of oily hands, shooter grabs to catch it and pulls the trigger while the muzzle is pointed at their arm, leg, etc.

 

[P95Carry]

rock - indeed I have read many stories of ''cleaning'' ''accidents''.

Let me rephrase my comment. EITHER the shooter has gotten unbelievably lax in his safety discipline OR it just may not be the whole accident it appears.

IMO and I have said this before a good many times - if just one rule is never disobeyed - rule #2 - then even an ND will not kill or mame.

None of us is infallible that's a fact but to ignore ALL safety rules at one instant - has to be someone innately most unsafe with firearms anyways. It just plain should not happen.

 

[ArmedBear]

Arm or leg, maybe, but a killing shot?

Yes, someone who doesn't follow the safety rules can easily shoot himself. But simply dropping the magazine and racking the slide, locking it open, will unload the gun and render it safe to handle sensibly.

In a country of 300,000,000, anything can happen, though.

 

[Azrael256]

Arm or leg, maybe, but a killing shot?

Ejector is broken or case is malformed. You drop the magazine, absent-mindedly rack the slide, and don't notice that nothing ejects. In your state of not paying attention, you drop the hammer while the pistol is pointed at your thigh, discharging the weapon and severing your femoral artery...

That's failure to complete rule #1, and failure to observe rule #2.

You prepare to clear the pistol, and holding it horizontally across your chest, rack the slide (like the guy at the shop did when he was showing you the pistol). The slide slips from your left hand and slams shut. Again, absent-mindedly, you have left your finger on or very near the trigger. The slide ramming home pushes the frame forward, jamming your finger into the trigger. The weapon discharges, and slices through your brachial artery...

That is probably failure on rules 2 and 3. It could be, however, that you have weak hands and a 1911 with a stiff spring, so it could just be #2.

Of course, the article doesn't say where the bullet struck, so we don't know. I'll take this one as a lesson to always be careful and observant when handling my guns. All four rules, all the time.

 

[ArmedBear]

It's vital not to do ANYTHING absent-mindedly, at least until the gun is disassembled on the table!

Then, absent-mindedness can lead to extreme frustration and an order from Numrich when you lose that tiny screw in the carpet, but at least it won't kill you.

 

[Nathanael_Greene]

Accident or suicide, it's still a tragedy when someone so young dies for no (apparent) good reason.

Either way, it's a tough road for the family, and I wish them well.

 

[molonlabe]

Authorities investigate shooting of UF student
Gainesville Police are investigating the death of a University of Florida student, killed by a gunshot wound earlier this week.

The body of Ryan Todd Lacey, 21, was discovered at his apartment at 3705 SW 27th St. when his girlfriend returned home at about 10 p.m. Tuesday, said Detective Michael Douglas. He died from a gunshot wound to the head.

Douglas said the wound was self-inflicted, but the Medical Examiner's Office will determine if the shooting was accidental. Investigators found no reason to indicate foul play in Lacey's death, the detective said.

Lacey's parents said their son was sitting on the couch, apparently watching television, according to UF Dean of Students Eugene Zdziarski. A gun-cleaning kit was beside him on the couch and the magazine was out of the gun, the parents also told Zdziarski.

"All indications were he was making plans for the future and things were going well," Zdziarski said.

Lacey, a Winter Park High School graduate, moved to Gainesville in 2004 and was a sophomore at UF's School of Building Construction.

- Sun staff report

 

[mattf7184]

Sounds like a suicide to me, unless he was looking down a loaded barrel with a round chambered and finger on trigger.....

That is within walking distance (a few blocks) from me. Got a friend that lives there, I'll ask if he knew him.

That same complex had an attempted rape/assault a few weeks ago as well.

 

[Standing Wolf]

Lacey's parents said their son was sitting on the couch, apparently watching television, according to UF Dean of Students Eugene Zdziarski.

See? Television kills.

Seriously: handling firearms requires one's undivided attention. There's no substitute.

 

[ArmedBear]

Oh hell, if I still watched TV I'd probably shoot myself in the head, too.

<gratuitous apology>
I'm sorry for being insensitive.
</gratuitous apology>

Everytime I pull my shotgun out of or put it into the locked cabinet I keep it in, I open the action and check it and the magazine. Every time I case it, or uncase it. Every time I rack it, I open the action. Even though I am DEAD SURE that it is empty.

A waste of time? Well, I still have a head.:banghead:

 

[SASS#23149]

here's one possible answer

I obviously didn't know the young man,or his firearms knowledge,but some people don[t know that dropping a mag does not render all pistols safe.In a moment of dumb-ness he could have played russian roulette,and lost.People do strange things with a gun they 'think' is unloaded.
condolences to his family and friends.

 

[c_yeager]

I think its interesting that his parents claim to know every detail of an event that didnt even happen in their home. It sounds to me like it is very important to them that this be accepted as an accidental shooting. It is normal for parents to have a hard time accepting a suicide. The police seem less convinced.

 

[coylh]

As Richard Pryor said:

...you don't get old being no fool....There's a lot of wise men that's deader than a M!t&!@F*k#$.

 

[losangeles]

It's not hard to fathom that an accident can happen. Many hundreds of thousands of people do the task he did without incident. Like someone mentioned, whenever you have a large sample of people statistically, things do happen and it's not unusual.

Hey, I've been a top level powerlifter for a couple decades and train other athletes usually effectively. But I've been guilty of momentary personal negligence on my own workout, for a couple seconds of doing something I shouldn't have done (in a moment of exuberance, doing toe raises with extremely heavy max level squat poundage), and have suffered broken sesimoid bones on both feet that I still live with. I consider myself to have good dexterity but I know of a couple instances where I accidentally dropped and broke a drinking glass. I'm a reasonably good driver, but I've had a couple accidents. Things happen.

 

[Father Knows Best]

Lacey's parents said their son was sitting on the couch, apparently watching television, according to UF Dean of Students Eugene Zdziarski. A gun-cleaning kit was beside him on the couch and the magazine was out of the gun, the parents also told Zdziarski.

I'm starting to believe that it may have been an accident. The facts that the magazine was out and the TV on can both be significant. As others have noted, the TV being on means he wasn't focusing on what he was doing, which could easily lead to carelessness and mistakes. The missing mag indicates that he may have attempted to clear the gun but failed for some reason to remove the round from the chamber. There are lots of ways that could happen. He may have dropped the mag and forgotten to rack the slide. Perhaps he got distracted in the middle of the process by something on TV, a telephone call, who knows? Or, he did what my brother did a few years ago.

My brother is an LEO, SWAT member and ex-Army. Like me, he grew up with guns, and has been a competitive pistol shooter for more than 25 years. We were trained from a very young age to observe the four rules, and my father was very strict about it. We have never been casual around firearms.

About three years ago, my brother was on a weekend training exercise with his SWAT team. They broke for lunch. For whatever reason, my brother decided to clear his Glock and stow it. Standing at the back of his car with the trunk open (where he had just thrown in a bunch of gear), he dropped the mag, racked the slide to eject the chambered round, and squeezed the trigger. It went BANG! and put a nice .40 caliber hole in the floor of the trunk. As it turns out, he only THOUGHT he released the mag and racked the slide. In fact, he somehow managed to reverse the order. He racked the slide first, which of course ejected the round from the chamber as he expected, but since the mag was still in, another one was quickly stripped off and chambered in its place. That round was still in the chamber when he dropped the mag and pulled the trigger. Luckily, his observance of rule #2 kept this simple mistake from becoming a tragedy. It was still a ND, but it was a ND with minimal consequences. He was still horribly embarrassed as his fellow officers came running to see what had happened.

So I'm willing to believe that this kid could have had an ND caused by not focusing on the task at hand while handling a firearm. The one piece that I still find difficult to comprehend is how he managed to put the bullet in his head. I don't think I've EVER pointed a gun at my head, and I don't intend to ever do so.

 

[atek3]

one way to make sure you don't get unloaded firearms confused with loaded firearms... keep all your guns loaded, that way, if you handle a gun, it IS loaded.

atek3

 

[El Tejon]

The Four Rules ALWAYS apply, even when cleaning your weapon.

Lessons learned:

1. Always finger your the chamber, look AND feel!

2. Just clean your guns when you clean your guns. Divided attention is a killer.

It's terrible a promising young man had to die for these lessons to be learned.