Posted on 07/11/2009 7:11:10 PM PDT by JoeProBono
MOUNT VERNON, Wash. – A 15-year-old boy found guilty of second-degree manslaughter for shooting and killing a woman he mistook as a bear will spend 30 days in juvenile detention.
According to investigators, Tyler Kales, who was 14 at the time, was bear hunting with his older brother Aug. 2, 2008 on Sauk Mountain in rural Skagit County, near Rockport.
He says in the fog that shrouded the mountain that day, he mistook 54-year-old Pamela Almli for a bear and fired a shot. The bullet struck her in the head, killing her.
Kales was found guilty last month of second-degree manslaughter. The judge acquitted him of first-degree manslaughter, finding he did not act recklessly However, the judge said firing on an outline in the fog from 150 yards away wasn’t a hunting accident.
“You ignored and broke all the rules. You have special responsibilities when you handle a gun and you didn’t follow through,” said Gail Blacker, Almli’s sister, at Kales’ sentencing Thursday.
Almli was hiking with a friend on the Sauk Mountain trail when Kales’ bullet hit her.
Well, they already try to charge everyone they can. My husband was once charged with vehicular homicide. It cost us a lot of money we didn’t have and thankfully it didn’t go to trial because the driver of the other car admitted pulling in front of him.
They should sue the state then because you have to pass a hunter’s safety course in every state to get a license so the state also thought that he was qualified to be hunting.
Accidents happen and most start with a stupid decision on the part of someone. It is a tragedy but tragedies also happen.
~~~
Just bear in mind that the eyes play tricks at dawn/fog,,,
FWIW: Hunter/Shooter for 57 of my 61 years,,,(Army at 17),,,
IMHO your post put it best,,,Accident,,,
I will add that in war this is called “Friendly Fire “,,,
It ain’t...
I guess that depends on the individual.
I was out hunting whitetails at the ripe old age of nine, and bagged my first at eleven.
Firearms safety was always stressed in my family, one lapse in pointing a firearm, unloading, etc. and you were done for the day.
As we only got to go hunting deer two or three days during the season, that really cut your odds of being successful.
We didn't break the rules.
I was hunting alone at 12, but I suppose it depends on where and when. It wasn’t unusual here, 50 years ago, kids that age were expected to act like they had good sense. I went to school with kids who had to help feed their families by hunting and fishing. It wasn’t so much recreation as it was a way of life.
It’s about the maturity of the gun licensee.
The sentence is NOT appropriate! You need to know what you are shooting. This is a farce and devalues that woman’s life.
EVERYONE who handles a gun is RESPONSIBLE for EVERY bullet which comes out of any gun they fire.
Period.
No excuses.
(This wasn’t a stressful situation where he got off a shot which went awry.....it was a focused shot where he should have waited. The sentence should be MUCH higher......this sentence is a joke).
Is it? Aside from the short jail term, he is now a convicted felon, barred from owning a gun, and from voting. And all the other stuff that goes with it.
I also hunted alone when I was young. But the biggest I was allowed to be in the field with was a .22 until I was 16
Not only was there no license for the person with the gun, there was no form 4473, no NICS, none of the infringements we know today.
As 'kids', in a rural tidewater setting, we were expected to act in a mature and responsible manner, and all the 'rites of passage' from being allowed to take a boat out by yourself to go fishing, to driving a tractor without an adult sitting behind you or standing on the towbar, to driving a farm truck on the farm or hunting were linked intimately to your individual behaviour, and not tied to your age. Of course, driving on the state roads was limited by law to those who had a license, with the exception of driving a tractor (which was considerably smaller than the leviathans they use out here on the prairie to till a dozen sections of wheat farm yearly).
Anyone in our age group who failed to have the priveleges and responsibilities of his (or her) peers was embarassed by their social handicap, and often teased about it until they proved themselves.
Somewhere along the line, that sort of peer pressure (to be responsible and mature) was abandoned by a large segment of the population, and I think the advent of age prohibitions on the activities we routinely did has removed the incentive to be responsible enough to do them.
Even those of us who joined Volunteer Fire Departments at 14 (yes, among us another rite of passage for those inclined and able) would have been prohibited from doing so today.
With maturity came the reward of greater responsibility and the satisfaction and status which went with it. When the rewards are removed, it is little surprise the maturity is less likely to occur.
It is a shame the young man did not make absolutely sure of his target. Many who are older have done the same. Whether the action is blamed on immaturity, 'buck fever', or negligence, it will not bring back the deceased. It really does not matter how old the hunter is, either they are careful or they are not, and he will pay for this carelessness for the rest of his life, incarcerated or not. The victim and all who knew her will pay as well.
Perhaps I missed it, but was this public land?
All I have to say is a lot of things called accidents are not accidents. Are quite preventable
And 30 days in jail does nothing to prevent this type of thing happening again.
There are lessons to be learned by idiotic and irresponsible behavior.
The lesson was not just for this idiotic and irresponsible 14 year old; but for ALL the idiotic and irresponsible.
When you only have to fear 30 days in jail; heck, may as well go for the shot and rehearse your “It looked like a bear” story.
Jeff Cooper’s Four Rules of Gun Safety
RULE I: ALL GUNS ARE ALWAYS LOADED
RULE II: NEVER LET THE MUZZLE COVER ANYTHING YOU ARE NOT WILLING TO DESTROY
RULE III: KEEP YOUR FINGER OFF THE TRIGGER UNTIL YOUR SIGHTS ARE ON THE TARGET
RULE IV: BE SURE OF YOUR TARGET AND WHAT’S BEHIND IT
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