New York man who shot and killed woman he mistook for a deer charged with manslaughter.

Rosemary Billaquist and her murderer.

Courtesy of the New York Daily News:

A hunter in western New York who mistook a 43-year-old woman for a deer was charged with manslaughter on Thursday. 

Rosemary Billquist was walking her dogs the day before Thanksgiving in the town of Sherman when she was shot once by Thomas Jadlowski. 

Jadlowski called 911 and stayed with Billquist until help arrived, but she was later pronounced dead at a nearby hospital in Pennsylvania. 

The 43-year-old Billquist was shot at about 5:30 p.m. It is illegal to hunt big game after sunset or before dawn in New York state.

"Today, Mr. Jadlowski is being held accountable for his dangerous and reckless conduct when he shot his neighbor in the dark," Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Commissioner Basil Seggos said.

Jadlowski was charged with hunting after hours and second degree manslaughter.

Of course if this had happened in Texas they probably would have charged the woman's corpse with wandering carelessly into the path of a bullet.

Five officials charged with manslaughter over Flint water crisis.

Courtesy of MLive:  

Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette has charged five water officials -- including a member of Gov. Rick Snyder's cabinet and a former emergency manager -- with manslaughter related to their alleged failure to act in during the Flint Water Crisis. 

Michigan Department of Health and Human Services Director Nick Lyon, former Flint Emergency Manager Darnell Earley, former City of Flint Water Department Manager Howard Croft, Michigan Department of Environmental Quality's Drinking Water Chief Liane Shekter-Smith and former district supervisor Stephen Busch will all face involuntary manslaughter charges related to their alleged failure to act in the Flint Water Crisis, Schuette announced in a release on Wednesday, June 14. 

Involuntary manslaughter is a felony punishable by up to 15 years in prison and/or a $7,500 fine. 

The manslaughter charges are connected to the death of Robert Skidmore, who died Dec. 13, 2015, due to the area's Legionnaires' disease outbreak.

This almost got lost among all of the Donald Trump coverage, but it nice to see that even though justice moves slowly that it does at least move forward.

And the Michigan Attorney General hinted that Governor Rick Snyder may not be out of the woods either. 

I remember when Rachel Maddow first started talking about this in early 2016. That it took this long for these charges to be filed seems indefensible.

Alaska mother charged with manslaughter in response to self inflicted shooting of three year old son.

Source

Courtesy of Alaska Dispatch: 

A woman has been charged with manslaughter in connection with the death of her 3-year-old son in a self-inflicted shooting at a South Anchorage home last summer. 

Court records show that Elizabeth Joelle Morin, 22, is charged with manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide in the death of Brayden Heath on Aug. 5. 

Medics responded to the home after Brayden shot himself with a gun he found there and pronounced him dead just before 12:30 p.m. Anchorage District Attorney Clint Campion said charging documents in the case were still pending as of Tuesday, but that both the manslaughter and homicide charges against Morin are based on alleged negligence.

I used to think that the parents of children who accidentally killed themselves with firearms had suffered enough and that jail was an unnecessary additional punishment.

That opinion changed about 100 innocent children's lives ago.

Arkansas parents charged with manslaughter after two year old son finds loaded handgun, shoots self in head.

Courtesy of Raw Story:  

An Arkansas couple has been charged with manslaughter after their 2-year-year old son accidentally shot himself with a .45 caliber pistol and died of a wound to his head, authorities said on Tuesday. 

The parents, Phillip and Tabitha Ashley, 27 and 23 respectively, were arrested on Monday. Local media said the couple left a loaded gun unattended in the house. 

Police declined to release any details but said additional charges are possible. The two, who are being held without bond in jail, have not commented on the incident.

Manslaughter seems like the appropriate charge here.

I am glad that we are seeing people like this punished for their negligence and no longer given a pass due to the fact that "they have already suffered enough."

No, they haven't. At least not yet.

"Fuck your breath!" Tulsa Country Sheriff's deputy who shot unarmed suspect instead of using his Taser bought his way onto the force.

Courtesy of New York Magazine:  

Over a week ago, an unarmed black man named Eric Courtney Harris was killed by 73-year-old Tulsa, Oklahoma, "reserve deputy" police officer Bob Bates. This happened shortly after Harris sold ammunition and a gun to some undercover cops, who moved to arrest him. Harris fled and — according to the explanation given by officials — Bates accidentally shot the 44-year-old while trying to Tase him: "During the rapidly evolving altercation, the reserve deputy had what he believed was his Taser from his tactical carrier ... Initial reports have determined that the reserve deputy was attempting to use less lethal force, believing he was utilizing a Taser, when he inadvertently discharged his service weapon, firing one round which struck Harris," said a report. Body-camera footage of the shooting, which was released on Friday, adds yet another horrifying dimension to the incident. 

In the (extremely upsetting) video, Harris can be seen running down a sidewalk. Officers order him to get down, someone yells "Taser!" and a gunshot is heard. Bates yells, "I shot him! I'm sorry." Meanwhile, Harris is crying, "He shot me! He shot me, man. Oh my God. I'm losing my breath." 

"Fuck your breath!" a cop responds. "Shut the fuck up!" "You shouldn’t have fucking ran!" his colleague adds as they hold Harris down. Harris died about an hour later at a nearby hospital.

Now you may be asking yourself just how in the hell does a trained deputy mistake a handgun for a Taser? Well this might help to explain that:  

The reserve Tulsa County Sheriff’s deputy who fatally shot and killed a man last week when he thought he had pulled his Taser, is part of a group of wealthy donors who make large contributions to the department for the privilege of playing police officer. 

According to Tulsa World, Robert Bates, 73, who made the fatal mistake that cost a man his life, is a local insurance company executive who has donated multiple vehicles, weapons, and stun guns to the Sheriff’s Office since becoming a reserve deputy in 2008.

A seventy three year old man, who bought his way into the Sheriff's Department so he could play cop. Gee why would anybody think something might go wrong?

Of course that in no way explains, or justifies, the deputy with his knee on this dying man's neck telling him "Fuck your breath!"

For his part Bob Bates is facing charges of second degree manslaughter.

As for the other officers on the scene who responded so callously to the pleading of a dying man, there are apparently no charges forthcoming.

Woman playfully slaps man, he shoots her dead. Just another day in the NRA's America.

Courtesy of The Florida Times-Union:  

A Clay County man was arrested early Saturday on manslaughter charges after allegedly shooting a woman to death after she jokingly slapped him across the face. 

Elliott William Orsborn, 26, is accused of shooting Jamie Lee Martin, 26, in the head after a night of friendly drinking at Martin's home at 2041 Ashton Street in Middleburg, according to the Clay County Sheriff’s Office. 

Witnesses told authorities Martin, Orsborn and several other friends had been hanging out in the garage throughout the night while Martin's two children slept in the house, according to the Sheriff’s Office. 

Orsborn had flashed his silver .22 revolver with electrical tape wrapped around the handle several times and kept playing around with it. 

The gun wasn't loaded earlier in the night because Orsborn took all the bullets out, the Sheriff’s Office said. 

As the night went on and the group drank more, Martin and Orsborn were sitting at a table talking when Martin said something Orsborn didn't like. Witnesses said Gavin Lamberth, Martin's boyfriend of about 5 months who lives with her and her children, told Orsborn to "just chill." 

Then, Martin "jokingly slapped the defendant across the face." 

Witnesses told authorities Orsborn pulled his gun out of his shorts pocket, pointed it at Martin's forehead and shot her, the Sheriff’s Office said.

You know perhaps times have changed, but I was raised to never strike back at a woman even if she was pummeling you with both fists, much less pull a gun and take her life.

Is this what living in a "gun culture" ultimately leads to?

So now we shoot teenagers in their cars for playing loud music, kill seventeen year olds on their way home from the store with a iced tea and Skittles, and shoot women in the face for slapping us with an open hand?

What in the hell happened to us?

Oscar Pistorius found guilty of South Africa's version of manslaughter.

Courtesy of USA Today:  

South African judge on Friday convicted athlete Oscar Pistorius of "culpable homicide" in the death of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp. 

A conviction of culpable homicide, the term for manslaughter in South Africa, carries a maximum 15-year prison sentence. 

Pistorius had already been cleared of murdering Steenkamp. Pistorius has been granted bail and will return to court on Oct.13 to find out whether he will be imprisoned and, if so, for how long. 

A day earlier, Judge Thokozile Masipa said state prosecutors had failed to prove Pistorius, 27, was guilty of premeditated or second-degree murder. 

However, Masipa found the actions by Pistorius — an Olympic and Paralympic athlete known as the Blade Runner for his use of specially designed prosthetic legs — to be "negligent."

Negligent? I'm sorry how do you say WTF in South African?

This asshole fired a gun through the door of his bathroom, when the only two people in the apartment were he and his girlfriend. 

I do not buy for an instant that he thought there had been a break in and was frightened into firing those shots.

A witness says she heard arguing, so how in the hell does this negligent thing come into play?

He had a fight with his girlfriend, she locked herself in the bathroom to get away from him, and he shot her in cold blood through the door.  End of story.

THAT is at the least second degree murder.

This asshole just got away with murder. 

Zimmerman jury asking about manslaughter instructions. Update!

BREAKING: The jury question is related to the jury instructions on manslaughter. #trayvonmatin #georgezimmerman
— Jonathan Capehart (@CapehartJ) July 13, 2013

This is breaking news right now, I will update as information comes in.

Update: There is a verdict in and we should know what it is in about fifteen minutes.

Somewhere there are Fox News reporters hoping to report on race riots.

The verdict is not guilty.

Fucking unbelievable!

The assault rifle that a gun nut used as a crutch fires and kills little girl. "Used as a crutch" is not a metaphor.

Courtesy of Salon:  

Court records show an Oregon man told police he was using his assault rifle as a crutch to help him get up from a couch at a friend’s apartment when it fired a burst through the ceiling and killed a little girl upstairs. 

The Grants Pass Daily Courier reports a police affidavit says Jon Andrew Meyer Jr. told investigators the gun went off accidentally at the Grants Pass apartment on June 27. 

Defense lawyer Gary Berlant adds Meyer had been assured the gun was not fully automatic. 

Meyer is being held on $250,000 bail on charges of manslaughter, assault and unlawful possession of a machine gun. Authorities say he was responsible for the reckless burst of rifle fire that killed 5-year-old Alysa Bobbitt of Shady Cove and wounded apartment resident Karen Hancock. 

The girl and Hancock were upstairs in the same apartment as Meyer.

Please tell me again how guns don't kill people, people kill people.

The fact is that the more weapons people have available to them the more they start seeing them as innocuous household items.

Can't open that can of beans? Here use this Luger.

Can't get the dog across the street to stop barking? Here lay down some suppression fire until he shuts up.

Can't get you fat ass off of the couch on your own? Thank God you have that assault rifle handy to help you.

This kind of thing sickens me. I will assume that the gun nuts will just push for ALL five year olds to start wearing bullet proof vests to protect themselves.

After all that that is essentially what they did for school children.

Since when did children suddenly become unsafe from gunfire in their own homes?