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Police shoot snake and kills a 5 yo boy

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SirKristoff is a poopiehead
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Stray police bullet kills Noble youth
Transcript Staff

A 5-year-old boy died Friday evening after he was apparently hit with a stray bullet from a Noble police officer who was attempting to shoot at a snake, said Noble City Manager Bob Wade.

“I think we need to have a full investigation and gather all the facts,” Wade said. “It makes you wonder why an officer would shoot into the air like that.”

Noble police were responding to a call of a live snake that was stuck in the rafters of a house about 6:30 p.m. Friday in a rural part of Noble in the Crestdale addition off of South Etowah Road when the incident happened, Wade said.

“One of the officers made the decision to shoot the snake,” he said. “After he fired, they heard a commotion coming from a field behind the house.”

A bullet apparently hit the boy who was fishing with a relative nearby, Wade said.

The boy was taken to Norman Regional Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, Wade said.

Noble police chief Ben Daves was at the emergency room late Friday evening and could not be reached for comment.
The snake was stuck in a bird house and not in the rafters of a house.

I can't believe that a boy died because of peoples fear of snakes. Why's most peoples first reaction when they see something they don't like is to kill it?
 
Dependson what kind of snake it is. If I had a rattlesnake or copperhead in my house...I'd probably shoot at it too, but with a shotgun, not with a handgun like an idiot.
 
I am shocked, just completely shocked, that it happened in OK.
 
uhh, what about the snake? so the guy just shot at the bird house, missed, and it hit the kid? how'd he pass the officers shooting test!?
 
the officer shouldnt have been shooting at a snake in a tree as there is no backstop to catch the bullet. this act of stupidity will haunt the guy to his death bed....bad deal for all involved....
 
Even if he was a marksman and actually hit the snake, it would have only changed the trajectory of the bullet a little. When I lived in MS, the widespread kneejerk response to a snake was to kill it. One of my high school classmates came to school hobbling and said it was because he shot a snake and one of the pellets went in his foot. He must have been almost standing on it. I saw people almost lose control of their car swerving to hit a snake. Granted, we had some scary snakes and some places were thick with them, but the reactions often overcame any kind of common sense. Snakes trigger something in the inner (reptilian?) part of some people's brains. Especially when their parents and grandparents and so on have raised them that way.
 
The person who fired the bullet was well trained in the use of guns. Ordinary people shouldn't be allowed to own guns. Any rebuttal quoting the Second Amendment should quote it in its entirety.
 
  • #10
you cant get past stupidity. not all police officers are well trained in guns and he broke the #2 rule "be sure of your target and whats behind it". ive come across ALOT of police officers that know MUCH less about guns than i do.
 
  • #11
Yeah, if he was so well trained then maybe he wouldn't be SHOOTING a snake in a BIRDHOUSE.

Shooting a snake in a birdhouse is exactly like saying "There's a rat! Get the flamethrower!" Honestly.

Speaking of honesty, I didn't believe this entirely, until I saw it on the news (I forgot if it was CNN or local.)
 
  • #12
To the person who said regular people whould not own a gun is a crock of poop. Sounds to me like this well "trained" officer had no common sence and very little training. I have not been trained in guns yet, but I do know that you should go for a body shot on someone instead of a head shot. Shooting at a birdhouse with a hand gun is just that. Going for a head shot with a small caliber round. Now a little boy is dead because of it. He sounds almost as stupid as the guy who finds his gun cocked and pulls the trigger to uncock it or the one who shoots himself cleaning his gun. No excuse. He was probably some brainless Barney Fife. I hope he goes to jail for a long time and the family sues the crap out of the depatment for letting a brainless moron work on their police force. Snakes have a purpose and would rather be left alone than hurt someone. Call in he experts to get them removed if they are in your house. Remember we excroched on their habitat. They are not encroching on ours.
 
  • #13
Plenty of shooting gets done where a hunter really has no idea where a missed shot will go. Like lightning bolts and meteorites, almost every wayward bullet or pellet lands harmlessly. Even in a congested place like Detroit, where idiots fire thousands of rounds into the air every New Years Day or whatever holiday it is that inspires them. It's amazing how few people get hit.
 
  • #14
Even if you got hit in the head by a bullet falling from the sky it wouldn't kill you.
 
  • #15
if shot perfectly straight up, prolly not but 99.99999999% are shot at an arc........dont take much of a deviation from 90 degrees to make a bullet potentially lethal for miles........
 
  • #16
If its at any angle greater than 45° it wont kill. Gravity is a conservative force, and will act to pull the bullet down at 9.8m/s2 regardless of direction. And "deadly for miles" is an overstatement in most cases. I can only think of a few rounds (that are in "common use") that can go over a mile. Even a .22 might not kill you if you get hit in the head point blank. I saw a guy on tv that got hit 4 times in the chest and once in the head and survived...until his attacker shot him in the head again with a high-power rifle.
 
  • #17
I can only think of a few rounds (that are in "common use") that can go over a mile.

you must not know much abot exterior balistics :grin: i can show you a 125 plus year old round, stuffed with black powder thats deadly at well over a mile. i know ppl who kill deer with a 223 remington at 700 yards at command. granted the average person cant do this but these guys know how to use turrets on their scopes and burn more gun powder in a year than an average military unit and actually have no military training. if a 223 will do it at 700 yards....something as basic as a 7mm rem mag or 300 win mag will do it at a mile........if the shooter is up to it.
 
  • #18
That 125 year old round isn't in common use, 700 yards isn't anywhere near a mile, the 7mm rem mag/300 win mag doing it "at a mile"..well "at a mile" does not = more than a mile. I mean...a 7mm drops about 33" at 500 yards, which is over 70" in a mile. So unless you're pretty high above something....

And what's that 125 yr old round made of, rock? Thats from almost the civil war days, those rounds went like 100 yards tops, misfired like no one's business, and were probably the least accurate projectiles ever.
 
  • #19
Realistically, no one short of sniper's and the such is aiming for anything more than a mile, much less 700 yards. The Average Joe hunter is going to be aiming within the 100-200yd range at the most. You also have to take into account that gravity as mentioned is always pulling down on the bullet. Once a gun fires the bullet is immediately sinking. The officer in mention must have been a bit on the dull side to shoot at the snake in the first place with anything less than a shot gun. Even then he'd have to get a good solid head shot to do anything. Snakes are resilient and that's why they say to screech your tires over them cause they live otherwise.... they're just a little more crooked than they were.
 
  • #20
#1 takes much less than a 45 degree angle to launch a bullet a mile or more.

#2 the 125 year old cartidge is still VERY popular, its a 45-70. hell the 30-06 has been around 100 years. the 270 winchester came out in the 1920's

#3 the army tested the 45-70 out to well over a mile. there were snipers in the Civil War using breach loading, paper cased rounds to kill ppl at over 500 yards.

#4 i have personally....PERSONALLY seen rifles shooting old black powder buffalo hunting rounds, using iron sights, making hit after hit on man sized targets out to 1000 yards......add modern rounds, modern optics and a hell of a lot of skill and you can get well past a mile for an aimed deadly shot...........take the aiming out of it and add pure dumb luck in the case of this cop killing the kid and the bullet is potentially deadly as far as you can throw it.
 
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