I am pleased to see there is discussion about this story. I've been a long-time member of Anandtech and the boy killed here, Austin, was my sisters son, my nephew. The grandfather was my dad.
Please allow me to tell you the real story. Some of the story is a bit skewed to make the situation appear better than what it really was.
First off, my dad took Austin and his younger brother down to his pond 2 or 3 times a week. It was something that Austin and my dad did together all the time. They enjoyed it and he died doing something he loved.
This particular day, my grandpa (Austin's great-grandfather) was also with them. They drove my dad's "Mule" (an all-terrain vehicle) to Austin's house which is actually just a neighbor to my parents but they set further back from the street than my parents. So, he picked up Dalton and Austin.
They were down at the pond for maybe 5 minutes feeding the fish and fishing at the same time as they normally do. My dad heard a gunshot and it hit the water about 4 ft in front of them. My dad yelled, "Hey, someone is shooting out here!" hoping that whoever had shot would hear him. Six seconds later, another shot was fired. My dad was actually turned looking across the pond because he thought the shots were coming from that way when actually the police officer was shooting from behind them about 100 yards away.
He turned and looked down, Austin, who was previously standing next to him was laying face-down on the dock bleeding horribly. At the time, Dalton, 2 years old, was scared of the noise and was actually about to get off the dock, my grandpa was actually going towards him. The only person that saw Austin fall was his younger brother who has repeatedly said "Bubba fall" for the last couple of days.
My dad, who is an attorney, thought that they were actually shooting at him because he does have several enemies being a trial attorney. He quickly picked Austin up, ran and put him in the back bed of the 4-wheeler. My grandpa must have went into immediate shock because my dad was trying to get him and Dalton up to the vehicle to and he was down there wandering around. After 15 seconds or so of yelling they finally came.
My dad rushed Austin to his parents house, which is about 150 yards from the pond. My sister was outside mowing and my dad told her than Austin had been shot. When looking at him they immediately knew he had no chance of survival. As my sister and brother-in-law were screaming and were in the process of calling 911, two police officers came out from behind some brush that was behind their house. They wondered where they came from, but they did not really think about it at the time. They still believed it was someone who was trying to kill my dad.
The police officer who did the shooting was actually there. They said that he didn't say a word. In fact, my sister was screaming "Please, you have to find who did this!"... he just nodded his head and said "we will". Those were about the only words that came out of his mouth.
The other police officer, a female cop, was actually going pretty bolistic. She was crying and saying "please, someone call my mother, i've been shot before and she prayed me through!".
Austin, 5 years old, died before he reached the hospital I believe.
Now, for what you want to hear: If my dad had instead of taking him to the pond had put him in the back of his car without a seatbelt and ran off the road somewhere and killed Austin there, he would maybe be sitting in jail right now, and would certainly be facing negligent homocide charges. What the police officer did is a lot worse.
Our family is grieving terribly, and what we have all said is that we don't want to see two lives lost over this deal. We know the officer has to feel terrible. He has not called and they probably have told him not to knowing that my dad is an attorney. But what we want everyone to know is that this situation should have never happened. Police officers need to be sent a message that if they pull their gun, it should be a life or death situation. This was not the case.
They recieved a call to go take care of snake that, despite what they put in reports, turns out to be a non-poisonous snake. The snake had gotten into a bird-house that was roughly 6 feet off the ground, certainly within reaching distance. It had eaten birds or eggs that were inside and its stomach was actually preventing it from going anywhere. This snake was not endangering anyones life at that point. The home owner had several gardening tools laying around directly where the bird house was when we walked over to see where the incident occurred. Instead of using the clippers or rake/hoe that was sitting next to the house, only about 10 ft away... this cop chose to pull his gun and fire two shots. It was completely unnecessary.
We fully admit that the police officer did this by accident. But we believe that if this guy didn't have a blue uniform, he wouldn't be protected as much as he is being. If this one of us or an average hunter out there, this would be a totally different situation. This officer was extremely careless.
Also, some reports describe the property this happened on as a country area. This was in the middle of town. Like my dad has said in a few reports, even if you don't count the houses that were behind the police officer when he shot, you could count more than 30 houses within a quarter of a mile. Yes, there was a pond here, yes, my dad has a little bit of acerage. But there was a good possibility that someone would have been in the area.
As well, he shot in the general direction of my brother-in-law who was working in a shop on a car. His bullet probably had to pass by this shop by only about 15 yards to reach the pond. And my sister was mowing next to the shop. Therefore, he had to have known people were in the area. He shot anyway and killed my 5 year old nephew. This man deserves jail time, maybe not prison time, but jail time. As well, he should NEVER be a police officer ever again. This is how our family feels.
Please allow me to tell you the real story. Some of the story is a bit skewed to make the situation appear better than what it really was.
First off, my dad took Austin and his younger brother down to his pond 2 or 3 times a week. It was something that Austin and my dad did together all the time. They enjoyed it and he died doing something he loved.
This particular day, my grandpa (Austin's great-grandfather) was also with them. They drove my dad's "Mule" (an all-terrain vehicle) to Austin's house which is actually just a neighbor to my parents but they set further back from the street than my parents. So, he picked up Dalton and Austin.
They were down at the pond for maybe 5 minutes feeding the fish and fishing at the same time as they normally do. My dad heard a gunshot and it hit the water about 4 ft in front of them. My dad yelled, "Hey, someone is shooting out here!" hoping that whoever had shot would hear him. Six seconds later, another shot was fired. My dad was actually turned looking across the pond because he thought the shots were coming from that way when actually the police officer was shooting from behind them about 100 yards away.
He turned and looked down, Austin, who was previously standing next to him was laying face-down on the dock bleeding horribly. At the time, Dalton, 2 years old, was scared of the noise and was actually about to get off the dock, my grandpa was actually going towards him. The only person that saw Austin fall was his younger brother who has repeatedly said "Bubba fall" for the last couple of days.
My dad, who is an attorney, thought that they were actually shooting at him because he does have several enemies being a trial attorney. He quickly picked Austin up, ran and put him in the back bed of the 4-wheeler. My grandpa must have went into immediate shock because my dad was trying to get him and Dalton up to the vehicle to and he was down there wandering around. After 15 seconds or so of yelling they finally came.
My dad rushed Austin to his parents house, which is about 150 yards from the pond. My sister was outside mowing and my dad told her than Austin had been shot. When looking at him they immediately knew he had no chance of survival. As my sister and brother-in-law were screaming and were in the process of calling 911, two police officers came out from behind some brush that was behind their house. They wondered where they came from, but they did not really think about it at the time. They still believed it was someone who was trying to kill my dad.
The police officer who did the shooting was actually there. They said that he didn't say a word. In fact, my sister was screaming "Please, you have to find who did this!"... he just nodded his head and said "we will". Those were about the only words that came out of his mouth.
The other police officer, a female cop, was actually going pretty bolistic. She was crying and saying "please, someone call my mother, i've been shot before and she prayed me through!".
Austin, 5 years old, died before he reached the hospital I believe.
Now, for what you want to hear: If my dad had instead of taking him to the pond had put him in the back of his car without a seatbelt and ran off the road somewhere and killed Austin there, he would maybe be sitting in jail right now, and would certainly be facing negligent homocide charges. What the police officer did is a lot worse.
Our family is grieving terribly, and what we have all said is that we don't want to see two lives lost over this deal. We know the officer has to feel terrible. He has not called and they probably have told him not to knowing that my dad is an attorney. But what we want everyone to know is that this situation should have never happened. Police officers need to be sent a message that if they pull their gun, it should be a life or death situation. This was not the case.
They recieved a call to go take care of snake that, despite what they put in reports, turns out to be a non-poisonous snake. The snake had gotten into a bird-house that was roughly 6 feet off the ground, certainly within reaching distance. It had eaten birds or eggs that were inside and its stomach was actually preventing it from going anywhere. This snake was not endangering anyones life at that point. The home owner had several gardening tools laying around directly where the bird house was when we walked over to see where the incident occurred. Instead of using the clippers or rake/hoe that was sitting next to the house, only about 10 ft away... this cop chose to pull his gun and fire two shots. It was completely unnecessary.
We fully admit that the police officer did this by accident. But we believe that if this guy didn't have a blue uniform, he wouldn't be protected as much as he is being. If this one of us or an average hunter out there, this would be a totally different situation. This officer was extremely careless.
Also, some reports describe the property this happened on as a country area. This was in the middle of town. Like my dad has said in a few reports, even if you don't count the houses that were behind the police officer when he shot, you could count more than 30 houses within a quarter of a mile. Yes, there was a pond here, yes, my dad has a little bit of acerage. But there was a good possibility that someone would have been in the area.
As well, he shot in the general direction of my brother-in-law who was working in a shop on a car. His bullet probably had to pass by this shop by only about 15 yards to reach the pond. And my sister was mowing next to the shop. Therefore, he had to have known people were in the area. He shot anyway and killed my 5 year old nephew. This man deserves jail time, maybe not prison time, but jail time. As well, he should NEVER be a police officer ever again. This is how our family feels.
Facebook
Twitter