Bullets, boys, and snakes

Posted on September 8, 2007, 12:24 am, by ABaN, under News and Politics.

Bullets, boys, and snakes

A Blog about Nothing - Bullets, boys, and snakes (Austin Haley)div>

As I did my daily reading of CNN.com I came across this article about Austin Haley who was shot in the head by a police officer. Before we go any further I just want to point out that the shooting was an accident. More appropriately gross negligence on the part of the officers involved.

NOBLE, Okla. — Cleveland County’s top prosecutor has decided to prosecute two Noble officers involved in the shooting death of a 5-year-old boy.

A Noble officer fired his gun at a snake more than a month ago, and the bullet ricocheted and hit 5-year-old Austin Haley in the head.

My first question is who fires a gun at a snake unless it is poisonous? Even then aside from a cantankerous leather lunged cowboy, who fires a gun at a snake?

However, he said that the officers failed to take reasonable care by firing shots in an open area at a non-poisonous snake. According to police reports, the officers responded on Aug. 3 to a report of a snake in a birdhouse.

Jack Tracy said he was fishing with Austin that night when he saw the first shot hit the water near where they were standing. As he pulled his grandson to his side, he said, a second shot hit the boy in the head.

According to Noble City Manager Bob Wade, two officers were investigating a call from a family about a snake. Wade said it was in a rural, wooded and isolated area near a pond with no houses.

My next question is what kind of a police department dispatches officers to investigate a snake in a birdhouse? Is that as insane as I think it sounds? I realize that Noble, Ok probably isn’t the most exciting place in the world, but surely they have something more pressing than snakes in birdhouses?

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  • You kill them with a gun because under NORMAL circumstances they are the best tool for the job at hand. They are by far the safest and most efficient method of confronting a poisonous snake.

    This situation is simply a terrible tragedy by all accounts. The police were just doing their job (though I'm still not sure why they were even dispatched to a snake sighting) and trying to rid the community of a nuisance. Unfortunately a series of poor judgment calls on the parts of many people led to this accidental death.
  • I'm not questioning why you would kill one, only the method used. Shooting a snake makes no since to me. I mean it is a snake and you know where it is and it won't get next to you unless you do something stupid like walk up to it. I guess I've just been around a lot of snakes, even deadly ones and I'm comfortable knowing what they are like. There are other weapons that can do the same exact thing that a gun does without harming anybody except for the snake. I guess if an animal specialist was called in instead a police officer the situation would be different. I just feel terrible for the kids family, terrible.
  • Rattle snakes are deadly pit vipers. Plus they actually taste halfway decent.
  • Okay why shoot a snake? Is it because you guys are scared or for fun? Because I don't see a reason to shoot a snake, especially in American as they are not that big. Do they think the snakes will like super fast come up to them and eat their heads off? :c) Just wondering.
  • GnomeyNewt - I have to admit to shooting a few rattlers in my time. However they were 1) real rattlers 2) slithering around on the ground not hanging from a tree and 3) I was using a scope, not trying to make a crack shot using the iron sights of a sidearm.

    As to your question, lots of people shoot snakes. It just takes someone especially brilliant to do it in the manner that this guy did it.
  • This story makes no sense. 1) Why would cops show up if there is a snake in OK? Hello, there are snakes everywhere there. And 2) who the f*** fires a gun at a snake? A snake? Common a snake! You have a better shot at hitting a kid in the head, oh wait, that is exactly what happened. Those police officers are lucky they are all the way in OK. Poisonous or not, you don't fire a gun at a snake!
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