Forget "you'll put your eye out!"
Air rifle shot kills teen girl
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
By RON COLQUITT
Staff Reporter
http://www.al.com/printer/printer.ssf?/base/news/1166005364307640.xml&coll=3
A 14-year-old girl died early Tuesday at University of Sout Alabama Children's & Women's Hospital after being shot in the head Monday evening with an air rifle a police spokesman described as similar to a BB gun, authorities said.
Officer Eric Gallichant, the Mobile police spokesman, identified the dead teen as Lindsey Warren, an eighth-grader at Katherine Hankins Middle School in Theodore.
Gallichant said the girl knew the boy who fired the shot, and the boy had not been arrested as of Tuesday afternoon. The spokesman would not give the boy's name or age.
As of late Tuesday, police had not determined the events of the shooting that occurred at about 5 p.m. Monday. Gallichant said he did not know where Warren lived. The Theodore home where she was shot was under construction, he said.
"Officers responded to 6509 Bellwood Drive West for a report of one shot," Gallichant said. "When the officers arrived on the scene, they discovered a female victim ... who had been shot in the head with an air rifle."
Asked to better describe the air rifle, Gallichant said it was "similar to a BB gun."
He said Warren first was taken to the University of South Alabama Medical Center then transferred to USA Children's and Women's Hospital "where she died from her injuries."
Gallichant said, "Members of the homicide unit were notified and responded to the scene to conduct the investigation. Their initial investigation revealed that Lindsey had been shot while on the premises."
Nancy Pierce, Mobile County public schools system spokeswoman, said late Tuesday that four counselors were sent to Hankins on Tuesday to talk with students one-on-one.
"It is such a tragedy," Pierce said. "People always talk about how sad it is at the holiday time because people are always with their family. But it is a tragedy no matter when it happens. We are truly saddened as a school system to lose one of our own. "
According to Pyramid Air Gun Mall's Web site, an air gun shoots a projectile using the force of pressurized air or a similar gas such as carbon dioxide, rather than by the pressure generated by gunpowder. Air guns can fire the common, round BB or pellets. There are three main types of air guns according to Pyramid:
A pneumatic air gun holds a stored charge of compressed air for one or several shots. The air can be pressurized by a pump that is part of the gun or it can be introduced from a separate source like a hand pump or a scuba tank.
A spring gun uses a powerful spring to push a piston that rapidly compresses air inside a chamber. Spring guns do not store air; they release it instantly -- just after they compress it.
The more powerful CO2 gun holds liquid carbon dioxide that evaporates to gas at very high pressure. Like the pneumatic, this gun has a valve that releases a portion of high-pressure gas with each shot.
A government Web site, www.pubmed.gov, which is operated by the National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health, quotes a 1982 medical assessment of air rifles and BB guns:
"Multiple-pump action air rifles have penetration velocities far in excess of the classic Daisy 'BB' guns. However, these lethal weapons are sold to be used by children. Lack of effective regulatory legislation coupled with parental ignorance will continue to allow for serious injuries and deaths in children. Physicians should be aware of the potential lethality of any air gun injuries."
The Web site -- www.bb-guns.org -- offers the following safety tips:
Treat all BB guns as if they are loaded, and never assume that one is not loaded.
Never point a BB gun at anyone, even if it is not loaded.
Do not shoot at a target if someone is near the target.
Keep your finger off the trigger until you are ready to fire.
Always use protective eyewear.
Keep in mind that BBs can ricochet off flat or hard surfaces and strike you or someone else.
Never allow minors -- a person under 18 -- to shoot any type of gun without adult supervision.
Do not carry a loaded BB gun when climbing over fences or up trees or even when jumping.
(Staff Reporter Rena Havner contributed to this report.)
Original Post
I think you are right, themax, it happened somewhere, a few years back, not sure about H'ville though.... My heart hurts for this family and everyone touched by this. God be with them.