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MI: Officer's son dies after gun accident
Josey1
Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
Officer's son dies after gun accident
The Grand Rapids Press
INTERLOCHEN -- The 4-year-old son of a police officer died Thursday, a day after he accidentally shot himself in the head with his father's handgun.
Traverse City police Officer Evan Warsecke hid his gun in their Interlochen home, but the boy "climbed up into a place where, to be honest, I couldn't have gotten," Benzie County Undersheriff Joseph Barone said. He apparently was playing with it when it discharged.
The boy climbed up a 7-foot-tall armoire to reach the .32-caliber pistol and took it to his bedroom, said Sharon Hoverter, the emergency dispatcher who answered the call at 9:14 p.m. Wednesday.
The boy's 8-year-old sister heard a noise and went to the boy's room and found her injured brother, Hoverter said. The boy's parents were in the basement and didn't hear the shot.
Hoverter said the gun was a service pistol, but may have been a backup and not the officer's primary weapon. She said the incident is under investigation, but is being considered an accident.
The child was brought to Munson Medical Center in critical condition, and died at 1 p.m. Thursday, authorities said.
The boy's parents, who have six children, are devastated.
"The parents are going through so much right now," Barone said. "He was their oldest boy."
The sheriff's department continues to investigate the incident.
"We have some interviews to finish up," Barone said. "Naturally, with all the chaos, we couldn't get to everything, but we're pretty certain of the events right now."
http://www.mlive.com/news/grpress/index.ssf?/base/news-0/1085755769270690.xmlc 2004 Grand Rapids Press. Used with permission
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878<P>
The Grand Rapids Press
INTERLOCHEN -- The 4-year-old son of a police officer died Thursday, a day after he accidentally shot himself in the head with his father's handgun.
Traverse City police Officer Evan Warsecke hid his gun in their Interlochen home, but the boy "climbed up into a place where, to be honest, I couldn't have gotten," Benzie County Undersheriff Joseph Barone said. He apparently was playing with it when it discharged.
The boy climbed up a 7-foot-tall armoire to reach the .32-caliber pistol and took it to his bedroom, said Sharon Hoverter, the emergency dispatcher who answered the call at 9:14 p.m. Wednesday.
The boy's 8-year-old sister heard a noise and went to the boy's room and found her injured brother, Hoverter said. The boy's parents were in the basement and didn't hear the shot.
Hoverter said the gun was a service pistol, but may have been a backup and not the officer's primary weapon. She said the incident is under investigation, but is being considered an accident.
The child was brought to Munson Medical Center in critical condition, and died at 1 p.m. Thursday, authorities said.
The boy's parents, who have six children, are devastated.
"The parents are going through so much right now," Barone said. "He was their oldest boy."
The sheriff's department continues to investigate the incident.
"We have some interviews to finish up," Barone said. "Naturally, with all the chaos, we couldn't get to everything, but we're pretty certain of the events right now."
http://www.mlive.com/news/grpress/index.ssf?/base/news-0/1085755769270690.xmlc 2004 Grand Rapids Press. Used with permission
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878<P>
Comments
Baldwin County Grand Jury has found that an Alabama State Trooper acted properly in an April shooting that left a Prichard man dead. The grand jury found that Darryl Taylor did not take "any action which would have required" State Trooper Angel Rodriguez to have fired the shot that killed him. It also found "no criminal responsibility in this shooting."
It happened on April Seventh, when Trooper Rodriguez pulled over a car Taylor was driving that had no brake lights. Rodriguez ran a check on the car's tag, and found the vehicle was reported stolen. So he planned to arrest Taylor on the felony charge, and asked him to get out of the car.
"At that point he felt like it was needed for him to draw his pistol, and to put him on the ground," says Whetstone. "Unfortunately, when he drew his pistol, by all accounts, it just went off when he pulled it up."
The bullet struck Taylor in the neck. He was flown to USA Medical Center, where he died days later.
Whetstone says as a result of this incident, Alabama State Troopers are now increasing the amount of force required to pull the trigger on a Glock gun. They're increasing it from 5 1/2 pounds of pressure to 8 1/2 pounds.
Whetstone says forensics tested the pistol, and found it didn't misfire. He says Rodriguez had recently returned to the Trooper force after serving in the military in Kuwait. The district attorney says Rodriguez may have been used to pulling the trigger on a military weapon, which he says requires about 10 pounds of pressure. The grand jury report is also concerned about the understaffed, overworked Trooper force, calling its funding level "woefully inadequate." In fact, Whetstone says the trooper's in-car camera wasn't working...because it didn't have a battery.
"And I'm not blaming necessarily the Department of Public Safety. They're having to make decisions about whether or not to buy guns, or to buy batteries, or to fire troopers," Whetstone says.
He adds that Rodriguez remains on administrative leave.
http://www.wkrg.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=WKRG/MGArticle/KRG_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031775725353&path=!news!local
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878<P>
Townsend, 21, allegedly climbed through the window of his former girlfriend's apartment, violating a restraining order and armed with a handgun, on Jan. 9. After an argument, he allegedly shot the 18-year-old woman twice, above her left ear and in her left shoulder, while their 1-year-old child was in the room, authorities said. He allegedly took her cell phone and several hundred dollars, then fled, said authorities.
Townsend was also charged with an alleged assault against the same victim on Dec. 22, 2003, authorities said.
He also faces charges from a Sept. 22, 2003 incident, when he allegedly grabbed his former girlfriend and forced her into the home of one of his relatives, moved her to his residence and hit her, said authorities.
A Camden County grand jury indicted Townsend on 17 counts, including aggravated assault, robbery, burglary, possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, criminal contempt and endangering the welfare of a child, said authorities.
Townsend's last known address was in the 1800 block of 44th Street in Pennsauken.
Anyone with information about him or his whereabouts is urged to telephone Sgt. Willie Mahan of the Camden County Prosecutor's Office Domestic Violence Unit at (856) 225-8400 or Camden police at (856) 757-7400.
http://www.nj.com/news/gloucester/local/index.ssf?/base/news-6/1085753782325500.xml
Copyright 2004 Gloucester County Times. Used with permission
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878<P>