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• The father is now reported as 73, not 51 as the first story said.
• The son is reported as adopted.
• Police say there is no evidence of alcohol or drug involvement.
• Results of forensic testing are not available yet (no surprise).

http://www.journal-news.net/page/conten ... stody.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

At this point the suspect should have had a bond hearing (unless the law is different in WV), but there is no mention of it.

- Jim

Teenagers kill, shoot, and otherwise seriously injure their parents intentionally all the time. I have listed a bunch of those incidents in the The Threat Within thread.

However, lacking further evidence, we could only speculate about this incident.

I think any adult man claiming to have shot his 13-year-old son in self defense is going to have a steep uphill burden of proof. He would if I were on the jury (which I would not be, most likely).

- Jim

The only news update on this incident is that the father was arrested and charged with murder. He is held without bail at this point.

With mug shot: http://www.wvmetronews.com/news.cfm?fun ... ryid=46163" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://articles.herald-mail.com/2011-06 ... nt-testing" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

If this incident makes any sense at all, without involving improbable TV-show plots, I wonder if PTSD was involved.

I find it hard to imagine that an experienced shooter could draw, acquire a target, and shoot his own son in the head without some conscious decision-making.

- Jim

If that's true, it's extremely troubling.

However, anyone at all can post comments on a web site and make up anything. If that person really is a material witness, he should not be running his mouth or his keyboard.

- Jim

I tend to overuse terms like idiot and moron, but I am at a loss for words here. We've already done the facepalm thing to death.

Assuming that this story is perfectly true, the father

1. Gave a handgun to a boy who had never shot before.
2. Went downrange with a loaded weapon.
3. "Thought" the boy was shooting at him.
4. Shot his own son in claimed self-defense.
5. Thought the police would accept this story.

Now he will most likely be found guilty of a felony. Possibly his entire family will be destroyed, including his relationships with his own parents, if they are still living. It would not be surprising if he ends his days as a broken man.

- Jim

In Hedgesville, West Virginia, today a 51-year-old man set up an improptu shooting range on his property to teach his 13-year-old son how to shoot.

[The father] apparently had taken his son to the backyard to shoot handguns, [a police spokesman] said. The father went down to a woodpile and told the boy, who'd never handled a gun before, where to shoot.

"He said he heard a gunshot and felt like the boy was shooting at him so he spun around and fired a shot back," ...

The boy was dead when first responders arrived. The police spokesman said that the father would be charged with murder.

http://www.journal-news.net/page/conten ... l?nav=5006" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

- Jim