Posted on 09/07/2007 7:38:42 PM PDT by Mariebl
Prosecutors filed second-degree manslaughter charges Friday against two Noble police officers involved in the Aug. 3 accidental shooting that claimed the life of 5-year-old Austin Haley of Noble.
Brad Rogers, 34, and Shawn Richardson, 29, are expected to turn themselves in to authorities next week, said Cleveland County District Attorney Greg Mashburn.
Rogers, who had been on the Noble police force approximately one month, was the officer who reportedly twice fired a .357 semi-automatic handgun in a residential area, attempting to shoot a snake in a bird house. One of the two shots struck Austin Haley in the head while he was fishing at a nearby pond with family members.
Sgt. Richardson was the supervising officer at the scene, Mashburn said.
“Being a member of the law enforcement community made the decision more difficult,” Mashburn said. “At the end of the day, I looked at the law and visited with the family and made the decision based on the law.”
Mashburn said he “thoroughly reviewed” OSBI reports and “personally walked” the scene of the shooting.
The second-degree manslaughter is based upon “culpable negligence,” Mashburn said.
“Culpable negligence is defined as the omission to do something a reasonably careful person would do,” Mashburn said. “Based on my review of the OSBI report and my viewing of the scene, I concluded these officers failed to do something that a reasonably careful person would do by firing a weapon at a non-poisonous snake that was stuck in a birdhouse without knowing what lay behind their location.”
Mashburn said he looked at other cases involving accidental deaths, and determined there “must be some level of accountability for the officers involved.”
Several family members attended Mashburn’s afternoon press conference at the Cleveland County Office Building.
“Just because they wear a uniform doesn’t mean they’re above the law,” said Cheryl Tracy, Austin’s grandmother. “If they had just used their brains, our grandson would not have been shot.”
I assume the ‘LEO can do no wrong’ posters will show up here shortly. Given the apparent facts, it might provide more insight into them than anything else.
Throw the book at them. Let them rot. Presumably a small amount of caution will filter down to their successors.
Horrible lessons to be learned all around. Anyone ever read Kurt Vonnagut’s book “Deadeye Dick”? Not a perfect tie in to that novel but a firm reminder-—bullets come to rest somewhere. And once more, snakes are best controlled with bird shot or blunt trauma.
Is that the one where a boy shoots a rifle out his window, kills a person a mile away, and the police arrest him and roll his entire body in fingerprint ink?
Or the police could carry a sack of mongooses in the car in case of a snake call.
Yes. RIP Kurt—(he was one of the few liberals I respected—he wrote well).
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