Check this CO2 knife out... talk about overkill
Posted on 01/11/2009 5:58:42 PM PST by Coleus
A West Milford man was charged today with reckless manslaughter in the shooting death of his wife this morning. Police said Frank McDonald shot his wife Cheryl, 44, in the left side of her back with a pellet gun the family used to shoot squirrels. “The way it looks, it was just a freak accident,” police Capt. Andrew Russo said.
“If you were going to kill someone, you would find something better to use.” A pellet gun is powered by compressed gas, but at pressures far below those of standard firearms. Frank McDonald called 911 at 9:59 a.m. from the family’s Weedon Drive home. He said his wife had been struck with a pellet and was having trouble breathing, police said.
By the time the police and an ambulance arrived at the house, Cheryl McDonald had gone into respiratory distress, Russo said. She was pronounced dead about 10:30 a.m. en route to West Milford High School, where a medevac helicopter was going to pick her up. Investigators questioned Frank McDonald at the West Milford police station before charging him with the second-degree crime. His bail was set at $150,000. The reckless manslaughter charge has a potential penalty of five to 10 years in prison and $150,000 in fines.
West Milford Police Department and the Passaic County Prosecutor’s Office are investigating the shooting. “We are still working on how it happened,” said Capt. James Beatrice, who is in charge of the Major Crimes Unit in the Passaic County Prosecutor’s Office. “Right now, it appears to be an accidental discharge of the gun. We won’t know more until we complete this investigation.”
Police cars, their lights flashing, were parked outside the family’s Colonial home for much of the afternoon as crime scene investigators walked in and out of the house. At one point, neighbors came outside to comfort a boy one neighbor said was the couple’s 12-year-old son as he left with relatives. “He just needs his mother,” said the neighbor, who declined to give his name.
The neighbors were stunned by the incident. “That does not happen on Weedon Drive,” said Debbie Poat, who lives two doors away from the McDonalds on the wooded street. “It’s quiet little cul-de-sac." “She was always so friendly,” Poat said of Cheryl McDonald. “When I went by, she would always wave.”
A former colleague at the West Milford Century 21 office where McDonald once worked as a real estate agent described her as a hard worker with an excellent sense of humor. “She was a pleasure to work with,” Keith Michaelson said. “She was a funny gal. We always had a good time when she was in the office. All I remember is we used to laugh a lot.” Michaelson said McDonald left her real estate career for another job about five years ago.
EARLIER STORY:
WEST MILFORD — A 44-year-old township mother was killed Saturday morning after being shot in the back with a pellet gun. Authorities said Cheryl McDonald, 44, of Weeden Drive died en route to Chilton Memorial Hospital in Pompton Plains after being picked up by the West Milford First Aid Squad about 10:30 a.m. They described the shooting as accidental.
Police said they received a 911 call at 9:59 a.m. from McDonald’s husband, Frank McDonald, who said his wife had been struck with a pellet and “wasn’t feeling well.” A pellet gun is powered by compressed gas, but at pressures far below those of standard firearms. The McDonalds used the gun to shoot squirrels, one police official said.
West Milford Police Department and the Passaic County Prosecutor’s Office are investigating the shooting. “We are still working on how it happened,” said Capt. James Beatrice, who is in charge of the Major Crimes Unit in the Passaic County Prosecutor’s Office. “Right now, it appears to be an accidental discharge of the gun. We won’t know more until we complete this investigation.”
Neighbors were stunned by the incident. “That does not happen on Weedon Drive,” said Debbie Poat, who lives two doors away from the McDonalds. “It’s quiet little cul-de-sac." “She was always so friendly,” Poat said of Cheryl McDonald. “When I went by, she would always wave.”
And one other thing-— I don’t know about this particular pellet rifle, but some shoot at the same velocity as a .22LR - which has been used to kill many people (and to poach a whole bunch of deer) over the years.
The problem is - this is exactly the ammunition the anti’s like to use to take even more of our things and rights away.
What if it went between her ribs and into her heart? Wouldn’t kill her quicker than a punctured lung?
Check this CO2 knife out... talk about overkill
It would have to penetrate the intracostal muscle, the lung, and then the pericardium to injure the heart. I don’t think a pellet rifle could do that. The most powerful pellet rifles I’ve sold had 29 foot pounds of energy at the muzzle. Those were .25 caliber Beeman R-9s, very unusual guns. I doubt this guy had one. A .22 pellet has around 15 foot pounds at the muzzle. By contrast, a .22 CB Short has 32 foot pounds.
The pellets might weigh as little as 7 or 15 grains. The .22 Short bullet weighs 29 grains. Mostly these things can’t be expected to penetrate deep into a limb. The muscle between the ribs should have stopped the pellet. As I think about this, I wonder if the woman had a medical condition that was a factor in the accident. It could have entered the lung and lacerated the pulmonaray artery, but it seems almost impossible that it was a fatal injury without some other factor.
It would have to penetrate the intracostal muscle, the lung, and then the pericardium to injure the heart. I don’t think a pellet rifle could do that. The most powerful pellet rifles I’ve sold had 29 foot pounds of energy at the muzzle. Those were .25 caliber Beeman R-9s, very unusual guns. I doubt this guy had one. A .22 pellet has around 15 foot pounds at the muzzle. By contrast, a .22 CB Short has 32 foot pounds.
The pellets might weigh as little as 7 or 15 grains. The .22 Short bullet weighs 29 grains. Mostly these things can’t be expected to penetrate deep into a limb. The muscle between the ribs should have stopped the pellet. As I think about this, I wonder if the woman had a medical condition that was a factor in the accident. It could have entered the lung and lacerated the pulmonaray artery, but it seems almost impossible that it was a fatal injury without some other factor.
i was thinking something really vascular in the back.. like the kidney or lucky/unlucky angled back shot nicking aorta/vena cava or other major artery.
“It took two people to write that?”
They wrote it twice too!
Could be, I'm no doctor, but an aortal nick could have bled into the lungs, or the chest cavity could have filled up with blood.
not really.
That's why if you stab someone from the rear you start at your waist level and plunge forward and towards the midline. Your body will naturally bring the blade in from the side you're holding the knife and cut your aorta, vena cava or renal arteries. The bleeding may or may not be visible outside and is collecting in an area behind the peritoneum, so it is walled of for awhile and will not go into the chest or belly...for awhile. You're still bleeding to death and will die..... it's just not messy yet.
Human body is amazing. So, yeah you can get shot in the back and bleed to death. It could have nicked some other artery branching off the aorta. Either way, it's a very unlucky shot with a pellet gun.
I guess it was a slow-news day.
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