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

[BassHunter25]

There is a hunting club in Effingham county that is completely bordered by neighborhoods and a middle school. My parents live adjacent to it. It used to be a dog hunting club and now is hunted with mostly rifles. When I hunted there, I was very careful and midful of where I fired my rifle. The club should make it more known that people around there need to be careful. Now they are in such need for members that they let anyone with money come join. So who knows what kind of idiots are hunting in our backyard and at my wifes' work. We as hunters need to look out for these idiots.


Especially if firing a rifle on the ground, you need to know what is within a mile beyond your target.

 

[haskell]

Anybody been able to find any follow up on this at all?

 

[DSGB]

Part of my objection to how this is being handled is the way it plays out to the media.

Right now on one of the news sites, there is a headline that reads "Texas Hunter Charged After Middle School Shooting".

That's what people are seeing.

You have to click on the link to get the full headline "Texas Hunter Charged With Trespassing After Shooting at Middle School"

The shortening of the headline for space is partly to blame as is the looseness in today's version of journalism. But it started with the Sheriff providing partial information that at this time has not been verified. But hunters are taking the black eye.

Even if it turns out to be the target shooters, they weren't hunting!

Just like the guy that recently killed the lady in her back yard, it should read, "Poacher charged after Middle School Shooting."

 

[CountryBoy77]

Hang em for being stupied....prayers for kids

 

[NOYDB]

Now....

“We don’t believe it was a hunting accident or a shooting that resulted from shots fired during a hunting incident, but rather maybe from a target practice session,â€� Treviño said, perhaps alluding to the two target shooters.

Backin' and fillin'

 

[NOYDB]

...and now

Investigators have yet to determine the origin of the bullets, though they no longer believe hunting played a factor in the incident.

An initial theory led authorities to believe either an illegal immigrant caught poaching to the west of the campus may have accidentally shot the two boys. Police also questioned two men who said they were target shooting to the north of the school.

 

[mtr3333]

So will the hunting community get an apology for the reflex condemnation? Of course not.

 

[NOYDB]

http://www.themonitor.com/articles/says-57417-school-copyright.html

Previous shots hitting the school ground. Nothing done.

Seems the bullet recovered may be .30 cal.

I wonder if this one will ever be solved.

 

[jiminbogart]

Update! Shooter charged!

http://www.reporternews.com/news/2012/jan/07/marksman-charged-in-shooting/

EDINBURG — A competitive marksman was charged Friday in a shooting last month in which two teens were severely wounded during basketball tryouts behind their South Texas middle school — a shooting the local sheriff portrayed as unintentional but "very reckless."

Dustin Wesley Cook, who was shooting targets with a friend on ranchland adjacent to Harwell Middle School on Dec. 12, was arraigned on a charge of second-degree felony aggravated assault. He was only charged in the shooting of 14-year-old Edson Amaro. Investigators haven't been able to test the bullet that wounded 13-year-old Nicholas Tijerina because it's lodged near his spine.

Cook's attorney, Michael Guerra, said that when the details of what transpired are made public, they will show Cook "didn't have any criminal responsibility, whatsoever." He said Cook is a parent and has been praying for the boys and their families.

But at a news conference after the hearing, Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Trevino said Cook, an experienced marksman, should have known better.

"We do not believe that Mr. Cook went out there and intentionally and knowingly discharged this weapon intending to shoot or injure a child, but he did do it in a very reckless manner," Trevino said. "By his own admission he knew that at the end of his targets, beyond his targets in a direct line was Harwell Middle School."

The school only opened in the fall, but police investigated a report of gunshots near the school before the students were wounded and investigated another report Friday that led to the school being locked down again.

Classes were finished on the day of the shootings, but there were about 50 students trying out for the basketball team behind the school, where two hoops were set up because the gym was being used. Nicholas, the younger boy, was going for layup when he was shot. Between 20 and 30 seconds later Edson, who had been sitting on a curb waiting his turn, was hit. They were about 15 feet apart, Trevino said.

Edson lost a kidney and shortly before Christmas, Nicholas' doctor said the boy was unable to move his legs, at least for the time being. Trevino said there was talk of sending Tijerina to a hospital in Houston where the bullet could be removed. If that happened, investigators would try to make a second ballistics match, he said.

 

[mtr3333]

Good update.

 

[NOYDB]

So they weren't hunting?

 

[Backwoods33]

Dustin wesley cook, that dont sound like it was the immigrant but maybe they sent him back to wherever he came from

 

[dmclain1]

I still think this whole thing is fishy. The way the kids were shot makes me think it wasn't a complete accident. I hope they recover well, and they throw the book at this guy.

 

[Lukikus2]

Stupidity.

You don't shoot a bow without a back stop much less a rifle. Idiot.