Teen hunter to be charged with first-degree manslaughter
Marta Murvosh | Skagit Valley Herald
August 11, 2008 - 07:18 PM
Charges of first-degree manslaughter will be filed against a 14-year-old boy who fatally shot a hiker on a Sauk Mountain trail after mistaking her for a bear, the prosecutor confirmed this evening.
Prosecutor Rich Weyrich said that the Concrete teen acted recklessly when he fired his rifle Aug. 2 across a trail that switchbacks along the south side of the mountain. The teen will be charged as a juvenile, but Weyrich said he did not plan to have the boy taken into custody.
The Skagit Valley Herald generally does not publish the names of juvenile defendants.
Pamela Almli, 54, of Oso, was shot in the head as she bent over to put a jacket into a backpack. Her friend, Lois Peterson, stood about two feet away.
The teen, who was accompanied by his 16-year-old brother, was about 120 yards away from Almli when he pulled the trigger, sending a .270-caliber bullet from his rifle.
Weyrich said the teen failed to follow several guidelines in the state’s hunting safety manual — mainly being sure of a target and what lies beyond it in the bullet’s path.
The boy, a licensed hunter who took the hunting class when he was 9 years old, is required by state law to know and follow the regulations.
Weyrich said the boys didn’t use binoculars to look for game and relied only on rifle scopes. Also, fog that day reduced visibility to between 20 feet and 100 yards, making it difficult to see the target, the prosecutor said.
Almli wore a light- to medium-blue windbreaker and her friend, a gray jacket, and Weyrich said that the color Almli wore was not one that a hunter should have mistaken for a bear, and the other woman should also have been visible to the hunters.
The boys were hunting while their grandfather waited in a vehicle. Washington law does not require juvenile hunters be accompanied by an adult.
If convicted, the 14-year-old boy faces up to nine months in a state juvenile detention facility.
