Florida 2-year-old fatally shoots himself with father's gun while parents load car

Toddler Kaleb Ahles reportedly lifted gun from glove compartment in car and turned it so that it faced his chest and squeezed the trigger
 

A Tampa Bay-area toddler is dead after finding his father’s .380-caliber handgun in the family’s car Wednesday afternoon and shooting himself, officials said.

Kaleb Ahles, 2, was in the car while his parents Kevin Ahles and Christina Nigro, both 23, loaded boxes as they prepared to move, according to Pinellas County sheriff’s deputies. Somehow, the boy opened the glove compartment, where his father had stored the gun.

The child lifted the gun, turned it so that it faced his chest and squeezed the trigger, the Tampa Bay Times reports.

His parents told deputies they heard a loud pop and ran to the car. The mother performed CPR, and the boy was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

“He probably barely got the trigger pulled,” said Sheriff Bob Gualtieri. He described the gun as a lightweight weapon usually carried in a pocket or on a hip.

Gualtieri called the incident a “tragic situation”.

“It’s just one of those things that happens where everything happens the wrong way,” he said.
The sheriff said the parents won’t face criminal charges – no one could punish them more than they’ll punish themselves, he said.

The child’s grandfather, a retired Tampa police detective who is also named Kevin Ahles, stood near the police tape outside the house Wednesday evening. “A great little kid was killed today,” he said. “That’s all there is to say.”

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jan/22/florida-toddler-fatally-shoots-himself-father-gun?CMP=share_btn_tw

Surfing community stunned after Brazil's Ricardo dos Santos shot dead

By Jethro Mullen, CNN

Updated 7:40 AM ET, Wed January 21, 2015

(CNN)Brazilian surf star Ricardo dos Santos has died after reportedly being shot by an off-duty police officer.

Heartbroken tributes poured in from the 24-year-old's surfing peers.

"An incredible human being!" wrote Carlos Burle, another top Brazilian surfer, in a post on Instagram. He said dos Santos had "a whole life ahead of him."

"RIP Ricardo dos Santos. Forever in our hearts," tweeted Tiago Pires, a leading Portuguese surfer.

Dos Santos was "a fearless, world-class tuberider" who "captured the surf world's attention" at the 2012 Billabong Pro event in Tahiti, according to Surfer magazine.

The off-duty police officer shot dos Santos three times in the chest Monday after the two had an argument in front of the surfer's family home in the Brazilian state of Santa Catarina, according to CNN affiliate Record News.

Doctors carried out surgery four times to try to save him, the broadcaster reported. 

As his life hung in the balance, many of his friends and fans took to social media, pulling for him to make a recovery. Some urged people to make blood donations.

"We're all together with you, brother," Burle wrote on Instagram.

But the doctors couldn't stop the bleeding. Dos Santos died Tuesday.

"We need to pray and thank God for the time he lived among us," his father said. "A great athlete, he was an example."

The police officer suspected in the shooting, identified as Luis Paulo Mota Brentano, has been arrested but says he shot the surfer in self-defense, according to Record News.

Many in the surfing community found it hard to grasp what had happened.

"He represented all of us very well and was very well recognized for his hard work and also was a very good person," said Gabriel Medina, Brazil's first surfing world champion. "There are certain things that we do not understand."

Adriano de Souza, another Brazilian pro-surfer, said it was difficult to find words for the situation.

"What to say when you lose a great friend?" he asked in Facebook post. "What to say when you lose somebody as happy, good-hearted and at one with life as Ricardo?"

CNN's Windson Moreira contributed to this report.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/21/americas/brazil-surfer-ricardo-dos-santos-death/index.html

Toddler accidentally shoots Army veteran mom dead as she changes baby’s diaper: police

Christa Engles, 26, died Monday just an hour after being shot in the head by her 3-year-old son inside their Tulsa, Okla., home. Cops said the child found a ‘large caliber’ handgun and fired one shot that hit his mother in the head.

 Christa Engles, 26, seen here in January after the birth of her daughter. She was accidentally shot dead Monday by her 3-year-old toddler son as she changed the infant girl's diaper, police said.

BY Sasha Goldstein

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Published: Tuesday, November 25, 2014, 12:55 PM

Updated: Tuesday, November 25, 2014, 1:33 PM

A young mom was accidentally shot dead Monday by her toddler son as she changed her 1-year-old daughter’s diaper, police in Oklahoma said.

The “horrible, horrible accident,” happened around 4:30 p.m., when the 3-year-old boy found the loaded semiautomatic handgun and fired a shot, hitting 26-year-old Christa Engles in the head, Tulsa police told the Tulsa World.

She died 60 minutes later.

Her mother and husband also live at the South 168th East Avenue home, but neither was home at the time.

Police said there were several guns in the home, but the toddler found the "large caliber" handgun under a couch before he fired the fatal bullet. As the little boy was taken from the home to be interviewed by police, he repeated over and over again, "Mommy shot," KJRH-TV reported.
Brian Engles, the husband, was working out of state as a truck driver when he learned his wife had been hospitalized with a life-threatening gunshot wound. He took to Facebook to urge family and friends to pray for his wife - before breaking the bad news.

“I lost my Wife to an accident yesterday,” he wrote early Tuesday. “Don't forget to tell your loved ones they are loved. You really never know when the last I love you really is the last.”
Cops spoke with the little boy, who confirmed to police what had happened. The shooting was described by police as “a horrible, horrible accident.”

On Facebook, Engles is pictured wearing Army fatigues and refers to herself as “Spc” Engles. The Tulsa World confirmed she was an enrolled military member.

“It's a new day, it will be my first without you,” her devastated husband wrote on Facebook. “I have so much on my mind but it doesn't matter. I know you loved me, I worship the ground you walked on. I am the luckiest man alive, to have been able to love you. Since the day i met you you have been the best part of me. I love you Precious Angel.”

sgoldstein@nydailynews.com

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/toddler-shoots-mom-dead-baby-diaper-cops-article-1.2023300http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/toddler-shoots-mom-dead-baby-diaper-cops-article-1.2023300

Teen dies playing Russian roulette with friend

By Associated Press

December 7, 2014 | 10:41am

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Police in Ohio say an 18-year-old man killed himself while playing Russian roulette.

The Columbus Dispatch reports that Rashaun McCrae died Monday night, and it took Whitehall police several days to confirm his cause of death and investigate the accounts of friends in the house at the time.

Police reports say an 18-year-old friend told officers that McCrae was sitting in a kitchen spinning the cylinder of a revolver and asked him if he wanted to play Russian roulette. The friend declined, left the room and heard a gunshot.

A 23-year-old woman told police that McCrae showed her and a friend the gun, loaded it with one bullet, held it to his head and fired.

One 911 caller said she heard shouts of “Why would you do this?”

http://nypost.com/2014/12/07/teen-dies-playing-russian-roulette-with-friend/

Toddler who shot mom 'unzipped' special purse gun pocket

 An Idaho State Patrol officer arrives at Wal-Mart in Hayden, Idaho. A 2-year-old boy accidentally shot and killed his mother after he reached into her purse at the northern Idaho Wal-Mart and her concealed gun fired, authorities said Tuesday. (Tess Freeman / AP)


Veronica Rutledge and her husband loved everything about guns. They practiced at shooting ranges. They hunted. And both of them, relatives and friends say, had permits to carry concealed firearms. Veronica typically left her Blackfoot, Idaho, home with her gun nestled at her side. So on Christmas morning last week, her husband gave her a present he hoped would make her life more comfortable: a purse with a special pocket for a concealed weapon.

The day after Christmas, she took her new gift with her on a trip with her husband and her 2-year-old son. They headed hundreds of miles north to the end of a country road where Terry Rutledge, her husband's father, lived. The father-in-law learned of the new purse.

"It was designed for that purpose — to carry a concealed firearm," Rutledge said in an interview late Tuesday night. "And you had to unzip a compartment to find the handgun.

On Tuesday morning, that was exactly what Veronica Rutledge's son did — with the most tragic of outcomes. Veronica, 29, arrived at a nearby Wal-Mart in Hayden with her three nieces and son, her gun "zippered closed" inside her new purse, her father-in-law said. Then, in the back of the store, near the electronics section, the purse was left unattended for a moment.

"An inquisitive 2-year-old boy reached into the purse, unzipped the compartment, found the gun and shot his mother in the head," Rutledge said. "It's a terrible, terrible incident."

The aftermath has been crushing, he said. His son went to the Wal-Mart to collect his nieces and son, and no one now is sure what to say to the boy, who is not doing well.

"My son is terrible," Rutledge said. "He has a 2-year-old boy right now who doesn't know where his mom is and he'll have to explain why his mom isn't coming home. And then, later on his life, as he questions it more, he'll again have to explain what happened, so we'll have to relive this several times over."

Rutledge isn't just sad — he's angry. Not at his grandson. Nor at his dead daughter-in-law, "who didn't have a malicious fiber in her body," he said. He's angry at the observers already using the accident as an excuse to grandstand on gun rights.

"They are painting Veronica as irresponsible, and that is not the case," he said. ". . . I brought my son up around guns, and he has extensive experience shooting it. And Veronica had had handgun classes; they're both licensed to carry, and this wasn't just some purse she had thrown her gun into."

The path Veronica Rutledge charted before her death, friends and family say, was one of academics and small-town, country living. "Hunting, being outdoors and being with her son" was what made her happiest, her friend Rhonda Ellis said. She was raised in northeast Idaho and always excelled at school, former high school classmate Kathleen Phelps said, recalling her as "extremely smart. . . . valedictorian of our class, very motivated and the smartest person I know. . . . Getting good grades was always very important to her."

She went on to graduate in 2010 from the University of Idaho with a chemistry degree, according to a commencement program. From there, she got a job at Battelle's Idaho National Laboratory and published several articles, one of which analyzed a method to absorb toxic waste discharged by burning nuclear fuel.

While away from the lab, she and her husband, whom she married in 2009, spent time shooting guns. "She was just as comfortable at a camp ground or a gun range as she was in a classroom," close friend Sheri Sandow said in an interview. On Facebook, she showed an interest in the outdoors and the National Rifle Association, and followed Guns.com, a publication that reports on gun life.
"They carried one every day of their lives, and they shot extensively," Rutledge said. "They loved it. Odd as it may sound, we are gun people."

A lot of people in Idaho are. Earlier this year, the state legislature passed a bill that allows people to carry concealed guns onto state university campuses. And more than 85,000 people — 7 percent of the population — are licensed to carry concealed weapons, according to the Crime Prevention Research Center.

So many locals didn't discern anything odd with 29-year-old woman carrying a loaded gun into a Wal-Mart during the holiday season. Stu Miller, a spokesman for the Kootenai County Sheriff's Office, told the New York Times that it didn't strike him as anything out of the ordinary. "It's pretty common around here," he said. "A lot of people carry loaded guns."

Sandow told The Post she often sees people with a gun cradled at their side. "In Idaho, we don't have to worry about a lot of crime and things like that," she said. "And to see someone with a gun isn't bizarre. [Veronica] wasn't carrying a gun because she felt unsafe. She was carrying a gun because she was raised around guns. This was just a horrible accident."

Washington Post

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-idaho-walmart-shooting-20141231-story.html
 

5-year-old boy finds gun, shoots baby brother in head

By Holly Yan, CNN

Updated 3:59 AM ET, Tue January 20, 2015

(CNN)The mother called 911 to say her 5-year-old boy shot his baby brother with a paintball gun.

But it wasn't a paintball gun. It was a .22-caliber Magnum revolver. And the 9-month-old boy didn't survive. 

Missouri authorities are trying to figure out what led up to the shooting Monday in Elmo, in the northwest corner of Missouri. 

"At this point foul play is not suspected, and it appears at this time that the shooting was accidental," the Nodaway County Sheriff's Office said. 

Sheriff Darren White told CNN affiliate KCTV that the baby was in a playpen when his brother found the gun lying on a bed. Authorities say the gun belongs to a relative, but not the mother.

The sheriff said guns are rampant in the rural community. 

"We are big supporters of firearms around here," White told CNN affiliate KETV. "We have a lot of people that own weapons. They hunt. They target shoot. ... Most people are very safe with them, and this is one of those cases where everything went together in the wrong way."

Authorities have not determined whether charges will be filed against any adult in the case.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/20/us/missouri-boy-shoots-baby-brother/index.html

Albuquerque Cop Shoots First, Asks Questions Later. Turns Out the Person He Shot Was a Cop

 http://thefreethoughtproject.com/undercover-albuquerque-police-officer-shot-fellow-cop/#55dUMvEBGKKTdOXZ.99

By Cassandra Rules on January 11, 2015

Albuquerque, NM– Albuquerque Police Department’s five months without a shooting has come to an end as an Albuquerque police officer remains in critical condition after being shot by a fellow officer on Friday.

The unnamed officer was shot while undercover during a drug operation to bust two men for $60 worth of meth.  Another officer sustained minor injuries, but information on how has not been released.

Police have not released the names of any of the officers who were involved, but criminal complaints filed in Metropolitan Court against the two targets of the investigation identify the undercover officers as detectives Holly Garcia and Jacob Grant, The Albuquerque Journal reported.

According to the criminal complaint, Garcia and Grant met a suspect to buy $60 worth of “shards,” another term for meth. The suspects got into Garcia’s car and she drove them to an Econo Lodge Motel.  One of the suspects went into a room and returned to Garcia’s vehicle with the meth.

Garcia then went to a McDonald’s parking lot and gave the signal to begin the bust, the shooting took place shortly after.

Witnesses report that they heard around five shots, and the officer was shot multiple times, but the exact number has not yet been released.

Police have not yet come forward with any explanation as to why an officer opened fire, but it appears as though both of the suspects were unarmed.  The pair was taken into custody on drug trafficking charges following the shooting.

Media, police, and citizens are grieving and expressing condolences, but what they are not doing is discussing why this really happened.

We don’t need all the details to be able to safely assume the undercover officer was not a threat to their peers, yet they were shot anyway.  Media is discussing this event using words like “tragedy” and “accident” while ignoring the fact that this is a symptom of a much larger problem, and it seems that an officer once again shot someone who posed no threat to them.

This trigger happy officer, who opened fire and shot someone who posed no danger to them, multiple times, is “devastated” according to Police Chief Gorden Eden. The lieutenant is currently on administrative leave and “getting support” through the department’s counseling services.
Police even went so far as to confiscate a witness’s cell phone after he had recorded some of the incident.

While brutality is clearly a nationwide issue, the APD has claimed some major notoriety for their badge abuse. Since 2010, the department has had 41 officer involved shootings, 27 of which were fatal.

In April, the department was accused of using excessive force by the Justice Department after the frightening murder of the homeless James Boyd when he was approached for “illegally camping.”  Boyd was shot by an officer who had discussed his plans to shoot him in the penis hours prior.  Their own police chief openly admitted that he is stuck with officers who should not be on the force.

Had the person this officer mistakenly shot, under the exact same circumstances, been one of the suspects- we would likely already know their entire history, the history of all relatives, and have been spoon fed some wild tale about the officer “fearing for their life” and having no other choice.  The shooting would be written off and ultimately swept away and forgotten by the media.

Police and police apologists have not victim blamed the unnamed officer.

So was this a “tragic accident” as they say, or evidence of the systemic lack of care taken by reckless officers as they reach for their weapons?

Perhaps we should call it what it is- one more victim of our militarized police and the disastrous drug war.  Nobody is safe, not even those standing behind the thin blue line.

Fairbanks man's gun goes off, hits him and his daughter

http://www.newsminer.com/news/local_news/fairbanks-man-s-gun-goes-off-hits-him-and-his/article_1f3e961e-9711-11e4-b775-27b3d61706f0.html

Posted: Thursday, January 8, 2015 12:15 am | Updated: 3:02 pm, Sat Jan 10, 2015.

By Dorothy Chomicz dchomicz@newsminer.com

Updated to reflect new information from Fairbanks Police Department.
FAIRBANKS — A 12-year-old girl was accidentally shot in the leg by her father on Monday afternoon while she was at a physical therapy appointment, Fairbanks police said. 

Officer Doug Welborn said the father was carrying a .40-caliber pistol in a holster on his belt when he and his daughter were going to appointments at Adient Physical Therapy in the Medical Dental Arts building on Lathrop Street.

Before his treatment began, the man decided to remove his gun from its holster. While he was transferring it to his jacket pocket, the gun discharged, police say.

The bullet entered and exited the man’s forearm, grazed his daughter’s right thigh and then entered her left thigh, Welborn said.

The girl’s mother, Sara Moisan, said her daughter’s father called her from the hospital to tell her what happened. Her daughter underwent surgery on both legs and was discharged from the hospital Tuesday morning.

Moisan said even though they “don’t have the best working relationship,” she bears her daughter’s father no ill will.

“This was a complete accident, there was no malice,” Moisan said. “I want what is best for my daughter. I do have my “Mama Bear” moments, but I don’t live with hate in my heart.”
Moisan and her mother, Linda Clark, said the girl’s father is a correctional officer at Fairbanks Correctional Center.

The man’s name was not given in the police incident report. Officer Welborn said, “investigators responded and interviewed all parties involved and the case has been referred to prosecutor’s office for one count of reckless endangerment. The case has gone over but we haven’t sent a criminal complaint yet.”

Moisan said her daughter had been undergoing physical therapy to strengthen her thigh muscles after spraining her knee doing gymnastics. She had planned to try out for the volleyball team at her middle school but that will have to wait until next year.

Her daughter is “doing better” but is still in a lot of pain, Moisan said. She hopes to return to school next week and for now is trying to deal with the different emotions brought on by the accident.
“She doesn’t hate her daddy, but she’s going to need to work through some things as time goes by. I know he’s going to be right there helping her. We all are,” Moisan said.

Contact Dorothy Chomicz at 459-7582. Follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/FDNMcrime.

Fayetteville soldier mistakenly shot by wife after triggering burglar alarm

http://www.fayobserver.com/news/crime_courts/fayetteville-soldier-mistakenly-shot-by-wife-after-triggering-burglar-alarm/article_c92b8654-cba8-5c74-a81f-e9675f94640e.html

Posted: Friday, January 9, 2015 12:08 pm | Updated: 5:20 pm, Sat Jan 10, 2015.

By Nancy McCleary Staff writer

 

A woman mistakenly shot her husband in the chest this morning after he triggered the burglar alarm at their home in west Fayetteville, police say.
The shooting was reported about 10:14 a.m. on the 1100 block of Christina Street, off Cliffdale Road in the Farmington subdivision.
Police said Tiffany Segule, 27, was asleep when her husband, Zia Segule, 28, activated the alarm coming inside.

Zia Segule, a soldier, had left the home earlier to report to work, said Officer Antoine Kincade, a police spokesman. He returned home with a breakfast food and triggered the alarm when opening the door.

Tiffany Segule was in the bedroom in the rear part of the house, Kincade said. Believing an intruder had broken into her home, she armed herself with a handgun and shot through the bedroom door, striking her husband once in the upper chest, police said.

"She woke up to the sound of the alarm, she got a handgun and then she fired through the bedroom door," Kincade said. "She reasonably believed there was an intruder."

No charges were filed Friday. Zia Segule was treated at Cape Fear Valley Medical Center and released.

Residents said the neighborhood is quiet and safe.

Matthew Jones has lived for five months in a house on nearby Bovill Circle, a cul-de-sac.
"It's a good neighborhood," Jones said.

Jose Estrella has lived on Christina Street, about a block from the Segules, for two years.
"I haven't had any issues personally," Estrella said. "There was a break-in next door about a year ago."

In the past year, police records show four break-ins each in houses and vehicles.

Neighbors said they were concerned about someone firing through a closed door without knowing who was on the other side.

"Before you open fire, you have to make sure you're not shooting the wrong person," Estrella said. "If I'm in my house and my room, I'll ask what's going on."

About 1:30 p.m., Zia Segule returned home with two other soldiers. He wanted to get into his house or vehicle, but a police officer explained that he had to wait until all evidence had been collected.
Segule had a bandage in the crook of his arm. He declined to be interviewed about what had happened.
 
"Nah, I'm good," he said. "Thanks."

Staff writer Nancy McCleary can be reached at mcclearyn@fayobserver.com or 486-3568.