CHARGES FILED IN GEORGIA HUNTING DEATH

GEORGIA HUNTING DEATH

The Georgia man responsible for shooting and killing his hunting partner has been charged. Hector reportedly had mistaken his friend for a deer. After realizing what had happened, he transported Bobby to a nearby gas station to meet an ambulance. Bobby later passed away at the hospital.

A GoFundMe Page has been organized to assist the family with expenses.

This is incredibly tragic but was entirely preventable. Here’s the problem with the whole ordeal: Georgia rifle season doesn’t open this year until October 19.

According to the Glynn County Sheriff’s Office, Hector was booked into the Glynn County Detention Center on four charges:

Hunting with an unlawful weapon.
Misuse of a firearm resulting in serious bodily harm to another.
Two separate license violations.

After an interview with Georgia DNR representative Mark McKinnon of the Washington Post reported:

“Our critical incident re-creation team is reconstructing the incident — just like you would a fatal car crash. They’ll take measurements, look at angles and they’ll determine what happened.”
Despite Lane’s death, McKinnon said firearm incidents while hunting are relatively rare in Georgia.
“Most hunting accidents we have, and most fatalities we have, are from falling from tree stands. Those are much more common than shooter incidents.”

Despite the fact that, at the very least, Hector was attempting to poach a deer, utilizing firearms for anything requires a HIGH degree of situational awareness and safety. While legal hunters tend to loathe poachers, the tragedy here is a harsh and unforgiving reminder of firearms safety.

There’s a phrase used in many skilled trades that goes like this, “measure twice, cut once.” Yes, it specifically applies to cutting something, but the principle stands for many purposes. When bearing down on a target, it is the shooters’ responsibility to KNOW, beyond a shadow of a doubt, what is behind the target.

What do you think about this situation?