***Update, shooter charged!*** 2 kids shot while on school B ball court.

[j_seph]

I think that our hunter safety course may need to be a bit more intensive.

Can't fix stupid. It's common sense that a bullet shouldn't be fired into the direction of such stuff and common sense that you should know your surrounding areas and whats behind your shot. Hope they catch whoever did it and they get what they have coming. Prayers up for the 2 kids

 

[EuroTech]

Roger that . Muzzle control

 

[bucktail]

Doesn't a .223 round drop something like 20 inches at 400 yards. And aren't they made to pass through at rages of 600 yards. I'm now expert just what I thought. Stuck in the middle of the chest and in the arm. That's only a few inches of penetration. Something doesn't sound right.

 

[j_seph]

EDINBURG, Texas (AP) — A Texas sheriff says authorities have interviewed three hunters suspected of firing stray bullets that wounded two middle school students trying out for the basketball team.

Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Trevino told The Associated Press early Tuesday that the "working theory" in the investigation is that the hunters fired the bullets. However, he says it still hasn't been determined if the shootings were intentional, reckless or an accident.

He says the hunters were taken in for questioning Monday night but weren't immediately arrested.

Trevino said one of the boys was listed in critical condition with a bullet embedded in an organ; the other was in stable condition. The shootings occurred Monday afternoon outside Harwell Middle School near Edinburg in South Texas.

Trevino says the school is in a heavily rural area, with two hunting pastures nearby.

Classes were not in session when the shooting happened around 4:45 p.m., but the school complex was immediately placed on lockdown. Edinburg school district spokesman Gilbert Tagle said a number of after-school activities were going on besides the basketball tryouts, including a concert and a faculty meeting. He estimated as many as 200 children could have been on campus.

At the time of the shooting, one of the boys was going for a layup. The other was waiting his turn to try out, Trevino said.

The shots did not come from the campus and were not a result of a drive-by, Trevino said.

Harwell Middle School opened just this year on the rural property northeast of Edinburg, which is about 50 miles northwest of Brownsville. Homes line the road approaching the school, but open fields stretch out behind it and to the north.

Investigators have spoken with owners of surrounding farms and the land was being leased to deer hunters, Trevino said.

The outdoor court where the shooting took place was north of the school complex at an athletic facility that includes a football field, track and tennis courts, said Oziel Garcia, a 14-year-old eighth-grader.

Annette Vargas Ugalde, a 15-year-old eighth grader, said she was about to board her bus near the gym after school when school officials started rushing students indoors.

"They told us to, `Get inside, get inside,"' she said.

She said she heard no shots but saw a group of people on the outdoor court standing near one boy on the ground. A school nurse tended to him while another boy was sitting up.

Annett said she boarded her bus and it left.

Samuel Cepeda, a 15-year-old eighth-grader, said gangs have been a problem at the school, and he has worried about security. However, Trevino said investigators do not believe the shooting was gang related.

Classes will go on as scheduled Tuesday, but with increased security and counselors available to speak with students, said Tagle, the district spokesman.

 

[NOYDB]

9207 N. Carmen Avila Road edinburg tx

Look on Google maps, Sat pics, dated 2011.

There is no basket ball court. I'm going to guess they set something up portable on one of the parking lots. It looks flat as a pancake.

Another thing that is bothering me about this report. You can tell the difference between a .223 rifle report and a .30 cal rifle report, even at a distance. And while not all, most TX kids from a rural area know the sound of a hunting rifle.

 

[jiminbogart]

9207 N. Carmen Avila Road edinburg tx

Look on Google maps, Sat pics, dated 2011.

There is no basket ball court. I'm going to guess they set something up portable on one of the parking lots. It looks flat as a pancake.

Another thing that is bothering me about this report. You can tell the difference between a .223 rifle report and a .30 cal rifle report, even at a distance. And while not all, most TX kids from a rural area know the sound of a hunting rifle.

On another forum I read that the school is only about a year old. Depending on the date of the picture the court may have well been added after the fact.

As far as a bystander knowing the difference between a .223 report and a .30 cal (30-30, 300 win mag???)report at an unknown distance, while preoccupied, I would not give it much credence.

 

[NOYDB]

They keep changing the report. Now it's both kids shot "in the torso".

Raises the question. If they were shot by .30 cal hunting bullets in the torso how did they survive?

Also the trajectory needed to cross 400yds and hit a kid making a layup doesn't seem like a shot at a deer on the ground. Even if the hunters were on the edge of the "Wooded" (a relative term in Texas) area.

Something is just not adding up with out more information.

 

[hunter rich]

"A wooded area stands about 400 yards from the school's fence line..." This implies that the edge of the woods is 400 yards from the schools fence line so the hunters had to be even farther away or they were intentionally shooting at the school. How far from the schools fence line is the b-ball court? Were the hunters locals or were they from some where else and did not know that 400+ yrds away was a school?

 

[tpj070]

How does this this cop know that the shots were not from a drive-by or a near by gang related incident? And remember 14 and 15 is a very prevalent age for gang initiation so it could be related to this. Sheriff needs to do a proper investigation before he talks to the media.

 

[Wallhanger]

What are the odds that two stray bullets hit two separate kids at 400 plus yds or whatever distance. Unless many many shots were taken in that direction from the wooded area I would have to assume they were shot intentionally. By who remains to be determined. I guess it's possible, just seems unlikely. My two cents

 

[mtr3333]

How does this this cop know that the shots were not from a drive-by or a near by gang related incident? And remember 14 and 15 is a very prevalent age for gang initiation so it could be related to this. Sheriff needs to do a proper investigation before he talks to the media.

He saw it in a movie once?

 

[ASH556]

I'm with you NOYDB. I am truly sorry that there were children injured by gunfire, but just because I am in a nearby vicinity with my hunting rifle don't assume it was me and take me into custody. Maybe explain to me what has happened and most all hunters will cooperate and do what they can to help. But take me into custody, I don't think so... I also have a right to protect myself from unlawful arrest, and I can effect such force as necessary to prevent said unlawful arrest.

Now I am not trying to stir the pot, and I am definately not down on law enforcement officers (i have been one for 26 years) but I also value my right to keep and bare arms.

+1

 

[NOYDB]

Some more tidbits:

The outdoor court was set up in a faculty and staff parking area behind the main administrative building. A chain link fence separates the campus from about 200 yards of open field and there a tree line starts an expanse of thick scrub.

The two men doing target practice may have been in the right line of fire to hit the students, but it would have been from a distance of about 800 yards, or nearly a half-mile, Trevino said. They were released around 2 a.m. Tuesday, but remain under investigation.

Just me, but if they were doing target practice wouldn't there have been more than two shots on that line of trajectory? Two guys fire one shot each and then quit?

the third was an illegal immigrant who was trespassing on the property and hunting with an assault rifle.

I am not picking on Immigrants, but a semi-auto rifle in .223 caliber is a more likely candidate. From what has been described so far.

Read more: http://www.centredaily.com/2011/12/13/3018377/3-hunters-questioned-in-shootings.html#ixzz1gRUHi4FF

 

[mtr3333]

Some more tidbits:





Just me, but if they were doing target practice wouldn't there have been more than two shots on that line of trajectory? Two guys fire one shot each and then quit?



I am not picking on Immigrants, but a semi-auto rifle in .223 caliber is a more likely candidate. From what has been described so far.

Read more: http://www.centredaily.com/2011/12/13/3018377/3-hunters-questioned-in-shootings.html#ixzz1gRUHi4FF

It is always good to wait on facts.

 

[Grey Man]

It is always good to wait on facts. Right now, according to that article, it is a fact that these hunters were target shooting at that time and shooting in that direction. At that distance, on a noisy playground, would the report have been heard? I doubt it.

Also, they were shooting through 600 yards of woods. I am thinking that would be enough to stop a bullet.

Also- and this is just my opinion- I support the right to bear arms. I also support he right of LEO's to interview anyone who happens to be nearby with a gun when someone has been shot. You can think that's "big brother" if you want, but I think it's an LEO doing their job right. My opinion.

 

[NOYDB]

Also:

Missing, did the shots follow close on each other? Someone gets shot and then another bullet follows seconds later someone might miss hearing where it came from. Someone is shot and the bullets are 30 seconds, maybe a minute or two apart. Even kids would notice the second shot.

I'm still having a problem with the target shooting scenario. You go out in the woods to sight in, or just shoot for fun. You set up a target(s). You blast away. Since you don't know your shots are continuing down range and hitting the school yard, you keep shooting. Any one sighting in, shoots groups 3-5 shots attempting to aim at the same place. Then you do it again. So I'm trying to understand how only two shots got away and not more. Or since it's leased land or a hunt club, don't they usually have "range" set up and use it over and over? New school but late in the season, maybe they've been skipping bullets off the parking lot all fall long.

 

[NOYDB]

And thinking more about it. A school parking lot, B-ball court, known gangs in area.

Report of shooting and first thing you do is call a helicopter to search for hunters?

It's not just a lack of information, I believe something(s) is being withheld.

 

[gunsaler111]

Two people accidently shot from a distance of 800 yards, and 600 of that woods? really? Something aint right....

 

[respro]

Don't pass the smell test for me neither. My money's on the gang thug theory.

 

[jiminbogart]

How long does it take to get the ballistics report back?

I hope when they are done with the illegal they send him back to where ever he came from.