Portland man pleads guilty to killing best friend, gets probation and community service

[depakid]

Helen Caron stepped to the front of the courtroom and said she did not want her son’s best friend to go to prison for accidentally shooting him with a gun.

“I expect that you will turn this tragic event into something meaningful and noble and that you will use this event to move toward success in your future, in order to honor my son,” she said, tears streaming down her cheeks.

With that, Multnomah County Circuit Judge Eric Bergstrom sentenced Andrew Gabriel Perez Friday to five years of probation and 500 hours of community service. Most of the community service will be speaking to young people about gun safety and exactly what happened last April, when the 18-year-old pulled the trigger on a shotgun he thought was empty, sending one blast into the head of Chance Domingo Caron, also 18.

Perez and Caron became best friends while attending Reynolds High School. A few months before the shooting – and near the end of their high-school years – the two rented out a house in the 11700 block of East Burnside Street that Caron’s family owned. They both worked at the Quiznos sandwich shop near the Portland International Airport.

Perez was seated on a loveseat in their home while he was fiddling with a pistol-grip shotgun he’d bought days earlier. He told investigators he thought he’d removed all the ammunition when the gun went off and the blast struck Caron, who was lying on the couch.

...Perez pleaded guilty to criminally negligent homicide with a gun. Oregon sentencing guidelines recommended that he be sentenced to close to 1 ½ years in prison. But prosecutor Jim Hayden said he was following the wishes of Caron’s family when he agreed to approve of no jail time. He also believes the sentence is just.

Perez had no criminal history before the shooting. Hayden said he doesn’t believe Perez will ever pose a threat to society, and that locking him up would accomplish nothing. But ordering Perez to speak to youth, would do good.

“What it simply is is a tragedy,” Hayden said

More: http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2010/01/portland_man_pleads_guilty_in.html

[tblue]

1. I hate guns. You rarely hear of an accidental stabbing.

How many lives?

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

9. Far more accidents with knives than with guns. Get a grip.

[rd_kent]

12. Accidents with knives happen all the time. Why so ignorant?

[rocktivity]

2. Homicide? Sounds more like manslaughter

death through recklessness/negligence.

:shrug:
rocktivity

[Posteritatis]

5. Homicide just literally means that someone was killed

It's definitely not synonymous with murder, with the connotations of intent that word carries. All murders are homicides, but not all homicides are murders.

[MadMaddie]

3. I understand it was accidental

However; whether it is a gun, knife or a 1 ton car people know the inherent dangers of each of them. This guy should have gotten at least two - three years, he was careless and a man his best friend is dead.

[Posteritatis]

4. It looks like the headline is trying to whip up outrage or something

This definitely seems to fall more into the realm of "terrible accident" than "lock the evildoer up for life," and it feels like the headline's trying to suggest we should be reacting the latter way instead.

(It's also sort of off-topic, but I'm always glad to see the victims or their families have a say in the sentencing process like in this case. It's probably far healthier for everyone involved in the long term.)

[rd_kent]

13. No, its just the OP trying to whip up outrage, bat as usual, he FAILS.

[Posteritatis]

17. No, that's the actual headline in the linked article, too. (nt)

[rd_kent]

18. I know, but the OP is using it for that purpose, and he fails, as usual.

Mostly because he really has no point, ever, except to say..guns bad...must ban guns....

[pnwmom]

6. A teen accidentally shoots and kills his best friend. The dead boy's mother

shows great forgiveness.

That's the story.

[oneshooter]

7. Meanwhile in OZ

Teen stabbed to death in party brawl
A TEENAGE boy has died after being stabbed during a brawl at a party in Perth's southeast.

Police were called after reports of two groups fighting in Stevenage St, Huntingdale, at about 12.30am (WST) this morning, WA police spokesman Sergeant Greg Lambert said.

A 16-year-old boy from Kenwick had been stabbed and was taken to Royal Perth Hospital but died.

A 17-year-old boy was also stabbed in the fight and was taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries to his arm.

http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/teen-stabbed-to-death-in-party-brawl/story-e6frfku0-1225820341682

It is SO safe in the Land of OZ!!

Oneshooter
Livin in Texas

[TPaine7]

10. At least there were no gunzzzzzz in teh OZ story!!!!

Nah, nah, nah, nah nah!

[rd_kent]

14. Knives embolden crime. Knife love in OZ must stop.

[proteus_lives]

8. I wonder if you'd post the story online if he accidentally ran his friend over.

Because he thought the brake was on.

Because it would be the same story.

Hmmmm, I wonder.

[depakid]

11. Posted it because it heppened where I once lived in Oregon

and I remembered when it happened.

Of course, I could just as easily posted this bit that happened over new years (while you all were going through your latest spate of workplace shootings):

Man handling gun shoots, kills 23-year-old friend

A 23-year-old man was killed early New Year's Day after a bullet discharged from a gun that a friend was handling and struck him in the head.

Responding officers booked Ian Lewis, also 23, into the Salt Lake City jail for negligent homicide. According to police, Lewis had picked up a gun and was handling it when it went off and struck Steven McKinney.

Both men are from the Salt Lake City area, said Salt Lake City Sgt. Robin Snyder. She added the incident is a reminder to always treat guns as if they are loaded.

Two other shootings occurred later Friday morning.

A group of men were having a New Year's Eve party at 1245 W. 800 South when a friend arrived. He said he had been at another party and had gotten into a fight with five other men there, and they had followed him. Shortly after, there was a knock at the door, and when the apartment's residents opened the door, two men appeared and someone started shooting into the apartment.

One man was hit in the chest and critically wounded, though his condition has improved slightly after surgery. Another man was hit in the arm and transported to the hospital in serious condition. He was released later in the day. Another man was grazed by a bullet and did not need to go to the hospital. Police are looking for five suspects.

In another incident, a man was shot in the hand after checking on the driver of a car that had broken down in front of the man's house on 2499 S. 500
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East. The man approached the car at about 4 a.m. and they started arguing.

More: A 23-year-old man was killed early New Year's Day after a bullet discharged from a gun that a friend was handling and struck him in the head.

Responding officers booked Ian Lewis, also 23, into the Salt Lake City jail for negligent homicide. According to police, Lewis had picked up a gun and was handling it when it went off and struck Steven McKinney.

Both men are from the Salt Lake City area, said Salt Lake City Sgt. Robin Snyder. She added the incident is a reminder to always treat guns as if they are loaded.

Two other shootings occurred later Friday morning.

A group of men were having a New Year's Eve party at 1245 W. 800 South when a friend arrived. He said he had been at another party and had gotten into a fight with five other men there, and they had followed him. Shortly after, there was a knock at the door, and when the apartment's residents opened the door, two men appeared and someone started shooting into the apartment.

One man was hit in the chest and critically wounded, though his condition has improved slightly after surgery. Another man was hit in the arm and transported to the hospital in serious condition. He was released later in the day. Another man was grazed by a bullet and did not need to go to the hospital. Police are looking for five suspects.

In another incident, a man was shot in the hand after checking on the driver of a car that had broken down in front of the man's house on 2499 S. 500East. The man approached the car at about 4 a.m. and they started arguing.

More: http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_14107794

I would note that this was hard to go back and fing in the news because since then there have been a ton of newer- and equally senseless shootings.

[rd_kent]

15. There have been even MORE newer and equally sensless stabbings, beatings and car crime.

[proteus_lives]

16. Accidents, idiocy and fools are a fact of life.

And have been since the beginning.

The different between us, my poseur-Aussie friend is that I know that these facts are no reason to relieve others of their rights.