FOXNews.com - Oklahoma Police Kill 5-Year Old Boy While Shooting at Snake -

NOBLE, Okla. — A stray bullet fired by a police officer trying to shoot a snake hit and killed a 5-year-old boy fishing at a nearby pond, officials said.

Austin Haley was fishing with his grandfather, Jack Tracy, Friday evening when Tracy said he heard a shot and saw a bullet hit the water just a few feet in front of the boat dock where he was standing.

Moments later, a second shot was fired that hit Austin in the head.

A Noble police officer who had responded to a report of a snake in a tree apparently fired the deadly shot while trying to kill the snake, according to City Manager Bob Wade.

Tracy said he initially thought he and his grandson were under attack by someone trying to kill them, so he put the boy into the back of a 4-wheeler and drove to his daughter's house about 200 yards away.

"Then two officers came out of the brush over there," he told The Oklahoman. "They didn't tell us they were the ones who had been shooting or that they had shot him. They didn't admit a doggone thing."

The boy was taken to an Oklahoma City hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

A resident of the Crest Lane neighborhood called police after discovering a large snake in a tree, Wade said.

"I was told that they tried several ways to get the snake down, but it was still hissing at them and firmly lodged," Wade said. "What I was told is that the owner of the home either suggested or agreed that they should go ahead and shoot the snake, and then everything happened from there."

Wade refused to identify the officer suspected of firing the shots but said the officer has been placed on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation.

"This is so bizarre it has to be fully investigated. ... We're pretty sure circumstantially that it is the bullet from the police officer's gun, but it might be a bullet from someone else," Wade said.

A state investigation has been launched into the shooting, and it appears the fatal shot was fired by the officer, said Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation spokeswoman Jessica Brown.

"We have no reason to believe it's not," Brown said. "But there certainly will be an investigation."

Tracy has little doubt about what happened.

"I'm not saying the cop shot him on purpose," Tracy said. "It was an accident. But let me tell you — if I had a kid and put him in this car and didn't put him in a car seat and he got killed on the way to town, they'd charge me with murder ... and what this cop did is a lot worse than that."

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,292168,00.html
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Cliff Notes: 5yr old fishing with his grandfather is hit by stray bullet fired by cop shooting at a snake that is up in a tree.

Man that's tragic, for the most part police are well trained but I do worry about the few that have itchy trigger fingers. An uppity friend of mine and his family was pulled over for speeding and the cops approached his vehicle with the guns pointed at him and the back seat which had tinted windows. he politely asked the cops to point the guns at him instead of his children in the back seat. The police lowered their weapons and life went on but his biggest concern was a young cop that would shoot at a shadow or something.

sounds like a typical cop.can't hit $#!t.and i think the training went out the window there.what the hell is up with shooting UP into a tree.didn't newton say "whatever goes up must come down"???

Don't you just love that about the internet and instant global "news"? A local tragedy turns into a national spectacle, for what purpose?

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Second cop thread lately. My response is that as a kid we used to fear and adore the state police in Pennsylvania. Always the pillars of the community and could be counted on to be there in a moment of need. Things change. The last two personal encounters I have had have shown them to be questioned, and definately not to be trusted. I attribute the current situation to the dearth of capable applicants and the need to fill quotas.

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Now that wasn't to smart, they should have just left the snake alone. Or used a shot gun.

Seems like a tragic accident.

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Was the cop's name "Chief Wiggums" by any chance?

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WTF? What a stupid, tragic mistake.

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Unbelievably stupid

Hmmm, shooting at a snake in a tree with a pistol. Guess it was a motorcyle cop and he didn't have a scatter gun in his cruiser.

(edit--now see Hatt's right on suggestion about using a shotgun)

Whatever else it was, it was incredibly poor judgement on the cop's part. Anybody using a gun ought to know better than to do something like that, particularly a cop.

He didn't sound too Noble to me. . .

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" We have nothing to fear but the main stream media itself . . . ."- Adapted from Franklin D Roosevelt for the 21st century

OBK #55

1998 Lincoln Continental - Sold
Max 1984 300TD 285,000 miles - Sold
The Dee8gonator 1987 560SEC 196,000 miles - Sold
Orgasmatron - 2006 CLS500 90,000 miles
2002 C320 Wagon 122,000 miles
2016 AMG GTS 12,000 miles

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I can't imagin what they were thinking, a bullit can travel pretty far if you shoot it up at a nice angle like they probably were. I don't know what would make them take a few shots at something in a tree in what I imagin was a neighborhood. They were not out in the woods. Birdshot would travel maybe 50 yards. It was stupid to say the least.

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1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

They were not shooting up at a "nice angle". The chances of two random rounds falling within five feet of each other are zero.

These guys were shooting straight on the snake.........and missed it..........with more than one round.