Posted on 05/21/2008 10:00:12 PM PDT by Darren McCarty
In his living room, Jonathan Schiefla felt the bullet hit his leg. The family cat, on the window sill, flew with the broken glass.
Schiefla told his wife to hit the floor.
In the distance, gunshots -- target practice south of their Coopersville home -- kept going off. He called 911, while wife Danyle kept pressure on his wound until rescuers arrived.
"It's something you don't expect to happen, being on your living-room floor watching television," he said Wednesday. "I'm just glad our little boy wasn't around."
Ottawa County sheriff's deputies identified four people -- two men, two women, ages from 17 to 23 -- who were shooting at targets in Polkton Township, a half-mile south of the Schieflas' mobile-home park. Detective Lt. Mark Bennett described the four as cooperative, unaware that the bullet, which crossed Int. 96, had traveled so far and hit anyone.
The shooting Tuesday night sent Schiefla, a 25-year-old landscaper, to Spectrum Health Butterworth Hospital, where doctors removed the .45-caliber slug that entered the back of his upper right leg and lodged in front, without hitting bone.
Police are in the process of determining which one of them fired the shot. Bennett said they were shooting at targets, but pending a prosecutor's review would not disclose the backstop used to protect others from errant shots.
Police reports showed that four guns, at least three of them handguns, were being fired. The guns were believed to be legally possessed for target practice in the township.
The four did not realize they were shooting in the direction of homes, with woods blocking the shooting area from the highway and mobile-home park.
"As bad as it turned out, it could've been even worse," Bennett said.
(Excerpt) Read more at blog.mlive.com ...
As Col. Cooper says:
1. All guns are always loaded.
2. Never let the muzzle cover anything you are not willing to destroy.
3. Keep your finger off the trigger till your sights are on the target.
4. Identify your target, and what is behind it.
That sentence just doesn't sit right for some reason...
.45 cal.
Sheesh!
Guy’s lucky he still has a leg.
And, that he didn’t bleed to death.
They are lucky that guy wasn't shooting .45 with cluster bomb rounds. Otherwise that bullet could have dodged all those trees like it did, and just as it crossed hwy 96, explode and release it's bomblets. A tragedy, as surely as I sit here, was averted.
A semi-related nonhighjack attempt to add to your list...
ALL railroad crossings are like looking down the barrel of a loaded gun.
***but pending a prosecutor’s review would not disclose the backstop used to protect others from errant shots.***
Which means there wasn’t a backstop.
I do truly have to say this is THE best article I’ve ever seen written on here about firearms, by any local journalist. I’m not including John Lott or other writers like him, just the local ones.
The guy that was shot told his wife to get down, call 911, and she even put pressure on the wound, rather than freezing due to fright.
This is a very good author. I’d recommend e-mails commending him on his writing.
Hahaha
Why?
My outdoor range has high berms with length of 25 ft, 50 yards and two 100 yard areas. A large, uninhabited mountain lies beyond the berms. We do have to watch for livestock up the hill before shooting.
I wonder if the "non-handgun" was in fact a .45 cal rifle?
Someone is going to be charged with a crime.
Preferably the doofus who fired the shot that hit the guy.
And, I am 100% behind that. These guys weren't "target shooting". They were goofing around, shooting their guns up in the air with no idea where the bullets would come down. This is just plain reckless and irresponsible behavior, and an innocent man got shot.
Charges. The guy who caused the injury has a more serious charge. Considering the cops won't say anything about the backdrop (which I suspect was supposed to be the woods aka nothing), some sort of criminal negligence with a firearm causing injury charge is probably likely (Several can apply). If the shooter knew a dwelling was there, that's a felony. I don't expect a felony, but I expect something to happen.
Only reason required is lawful purposes, and they don't ask that when you buy. I think that blurb was so the article paints a picture of target shooters instead of bad elements which do exist in some neighborhoods in Grand Rapids.
That's what I'm thinking. I can't see .45 ACP slugs going 1/2 mile unless someone shoots up in the air or is on a big hill. I've driven on that part of I-96 before. It's not that hilly there. I always thought the .45 is a relatively slow moving round as well.
Now this round went 1/2 mile, through the expressway, through a window, and down to a floor lodging in the man's leg. How does that happen? That doesn't sound like a flat trajectory to me.
If they were target shooting, there were probably other rounds nearby. I wonder if the cops found them as well.
They were shooting in the air.
A couple of rounds went through the back stop and ended up in the shed of a house.
The home owner was a little upset.
Which is why that old footage of Saddam Hussein shooting guns into the air always creeped me out!
Or someone else was shooting, too. Ballistics should tell the tale.
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