Sad news in TX - Range death
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/chronicle/5392923.html
Shooting accident kills man at Houston gun range
By ROBERT CROWE
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle
A man was fatally shot during an accident at a west Houston gun range, police said.
The 45- to 50-year-old man died after he suffered a gunshot wound to the chest at American Shooting Centers in the 16500 block of Westheimer Parkway, Houston police said.
The incident happened about 6:40 p.m. Authorities say they believe the injuries were caused by a rifle.
No other details were immediately available Wednesday night.
Meanwhile, a police officer for the Port of Corpus Christi died in a similar shooting, police said.
James Saavedra, 40, was shot once in the chest on Wednesday while he and another officer were sighting in a rifle at the department's gun range, said Luther Kim, the port's police chief. Saavedra died at a hospital one hour later.
Saavedra was working with Officer Eric Giannamore when the shot was fired. Kim said he did not know which officer fired the shot or where the two men were standing in relation to one another.
Kim said the officers were on duty when the shooting occurred. Both were qualified range masters and experienced as firearms instructors, he said.
"Words cannot express the sorrow we all feel at his untimely passing," Kim said. "(Saavedra) was an exceptional and highly experienced police officer, but more importantly, a wonderful man."
The Corpus Christi Police Department was handling the investigation for the port police force, a nine-officer department with jurisdiction over the Nueces County port. Kim said Giannamore has been placed on administrative leave with pay.
Saavedra is survived by his wife, two daughters and a son.
Associated Press contributed to this report.
Shooting accident kills man at Houston gun range
By ROBERT CROWE
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle
A man was fatally shot during an accident at a west Houston gun range, police said.
The 45- to 50-year-old man died after he suffered a gunshot wound to the chest at American Shooting Centers in the 16500 block of Westheimer Parkway, Houston police said.
The incident happened about 6:40 p.m. Authorities say they believe the injuries were caused by a rifle.
No other details were immediately available Wednesday night.
Meanwhile, a police officer for the Port of Corpus Christi died in a similar shooting, police said.
James Saavedra, 40, was shot once in the chest on Wednesday while he and another officer were sighting in a rifle at the department's gun range, said Luther Kim, the port's police chief. Saavedra died at a hospital one hour later.
Saavedra was working with Officer Eric Giannamore when the shot was fired. Kim said he did not know which officer fired the shot or where the two men were standing in relation to one another.
Kim said the officers were on duty when the shooting occurred. Both were qualified range masters and experienced as firearms instructors, he said.
"Words cannot express the sorrow we all feel at his untimely passing," Kim said. "(Saavedra) was an exceptional and highly experienced police officer, but more importantly, a wonderful man."
The Corpus Christi Police Department was handling the investigation for the port police force, a nine-officer department with jurisdiction over the Nueces County port. Kim said Giannamore has been placed on administrative leave with pay.
Saavedra is survived by his wife, two daughters and a son.
Associated Press contributed to this report.
0
-
that is really sad 0 -
no excuse 0 -
Very sad, especially this time of year 0 -
I think sometimes the very experenced gets sloppy. Saddens me as it can be prevented. Condolences to the family. 0 -
I'm sorry for the loss his family is experiencing. Truely a sad day.
But,
In my many hours at the local range, it is the members of the various non-military police agencies that scare me the most. They tend to be reckless, loud, profain and down right dangerous. I simply leave when they get too out of hand. They do not credit themselves and their force. The last time I shot with LEOs I had to ask one in particular to watch his foul mouth. I really can't stand vulgarity around women and children. FWIW the LEO in question did, to his credit, stop and in fact apologised.0 -
That is really sad and even more so at this time of year.
The professional military can get sloppy or stupid as well. Three or four years ago we had a shooting at our armory on the base. We had Army Guard augmenteeing our AD Air Force Security Forces during a large deployment.
The Army and AF guy were checking out one of the M9s and they failed to do the basic safety check and ensure the weapon was clear and safe. Single 9mm shot to the lower left abdomen on the AF guy from about 8 feet away...through and through and missed all vital organs and nicked the intestine...very lucky for the man.0 -
Two range masters?
They don't know who fired the shot?
I would like to get the details on this one.0 -
i haven't been to the range much this year, i'm getting sick of getting flagged, our range has grown to 1,000 members, and it apears 900 of them are idiots 0 -
Very sad.
I used to shoot at ASC when I lived in Houston. This is a very large facility with 3 sporting clays courses, 10 trap/skeet fields, five stand, 25 yard pistol ranges and numerous different length rifle ranges from 100-600yds. My experience has been that they are very safety conscious and do not allow any screwing around. Not sure what happened but this has historically been a very safe place to shoot.
Edit: Not much info on the shooting at ASC, article is mostly about the "other" shooting. Not a very well written article.
http://forums.gunbroker.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=2783030 -
+1
quote:Originally posted by zipperzap
no excuse0 -
I shoot at the ASC and they close @ 5PM if he was shot at 6.40pm ,do you know how dark it is at that time? and the newspaper makes no story about ether shooting this Morning.[?] 0 -
YEP! Experts , just like the carpenter with 3 fingers on one hand.. got careless one time.[:(][:(]
Three different law enforcement agencies use our range and man What a "cluster Bang" They think they know it all, "Gung Ho". I range officered for them twice but never again. [:0]0 -
American Shooting Center... That place is well known for it's strict safety officers... The kind that make new shooters really nervous... 0 -
Hook & Bullet
A hunting and fishing blog with Doug Pike
December 20, 2007
Tragic accident Wednesday at the rifle range
Late Wednesday, a man accidentally shot and killed himself at American Shooting Centers in far west Houston. That same day, a police officer in Corpus Christi died also of a gunshot wound suffered at his department's shooting range.
Details of the incident in Corpus Christi weren't immediately available, but I did find out a few things about the tragedy at ASC.
The man arrived late in the afternoon, apparently hoping to sight in his rifle just before the range closed. While he was removing the weapon from the back of his SUV, the gun discharged, and the bullet struck him in the chest.
While it's impossible to determine exactly how this happened, someone who was at the scene said that it appeared the trigger had bumped a latch on the man's hard-plastic gun case as the rifle was being pulled from the car.
We'll never know why a live round was in the rifle, why the gun's safety apparently wasn't engaged, or why the rifle wasn't pointed in a safe direction. What we do know is that a momentary lapse in judgment resulted in a sorrowful and irreversible event.
Heartfelt sympathies are extended to the man's family, friends and hunting buddies. His age is not important except to note that he was far too young to be lost.
Safety first. Every time. No compromises.
Posted by Doug Pike at 02:11 PM in Hunting | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)0 -
quote:Originally posted by zipperzap
no excuse
AT ALL!0 -
SAD. [:(] 0 -
Many of the pioneers going west in wagon trains were killed in this fashion.
They had long barrelled percussion cap rifles and shotguns. They kept them locked and loaded.
A pioneer would reach in the wagon and grab the weapon by the muzzle. As he pulled it towards him the hammer would catch on something, pull back, and then be released. The gun was already pointed right at the pioneer's torso.0
Please sign in to leave a comment.
Comments
17 comments