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Man kills neighbor in 'freak accident'

kenny

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http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/164029

Man kills neighbor in 'freak accident' Police say an animal control officer was trying to shoot his own cow when he shot the man. [font="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"] By Shawna Morrison
[/font] 381-1665
A man was killed by a Floyd County animal control officer Thursday night in what the victim's wife called "a freak accident."
The shooting happened about 7:15 p.m. in a field off Conner Grove Road in Willis. Virginia State Police spokeswoman Corinne Geller said Garland Nester was attempting to put down one of his own cows by shooting it when he shot his neighbor Paul Belcher of nearby Meadows of Dan.
Belcher, 75, was shot once, she said. He died at the scene.
Geller said a handgun was used in the shooting. She wouldn't say if it was the gun issued to Nester by the county, citing an ongoing investigation.
It is unclear whether Nester was on duty at the time of the shooting or how long he has been an animal control officer. Geller referred questions to Floyd County officials, who could not be reached Friday.
Because Nester is employed by the county, the Floyd County Sheriff's Office requested that state police handle the investigation, Geller said. Also, she said, Franklin County Commonwealth's Attorney Cliff Hapgood has been appointed special prosecutor in the case.
The animal control office is not a branch of the sheriff's office, Geller said.
No charges had been filed as of Friday. It is unclear whether Nester has been placed on leave. Geller said that would be up to county officials.
Jean Belcher said her husband went to try to help Nester, whose cow had gotten loose.
Nester didn't know Paul Belcher was nearby, she said.
"He shot at the cow and shot Paul," she said. "It was truly accidental."
Jean Belcher described her husband of 13 years as an excellent husband, father, stepfather and neighbor, "and a friend to everybody."
He had three children and three stepchildren.
 

hsmith

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VApatriot wrote:
There are way too may things wrong with this to spend all the time it would taketo explain them all.

HOW DOES THIS HAPPEN?!:banghead:
Because they probably aren't accidents?

Like all the AD's during "gun cleanings" - they smell more like suicide attempts gone wrong
 

caltain

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I was born in Texas. I was raised around cows. These things are bigger than the side of a barn, and not even half as smart. There are only two ways I can think that this would happen. The first is intentionally. The second is blind ass bad luck. If you shoot at a cows skull, the common way to put one down in the field, you'd usually use a rifle, because you generally aim between the eyes. The reason you use a rifle is because cows, bulls especially, but hefers too, have seriously thick skulls. If this poor sod happened to shoot the thing in the skull at a low angle, say the cow turned its head at the last moment, any handgun round, and a good part of the rifle cartriges are going to riccochet. It doesn't have to be that low an angle for this to happen with a handgun round, as underpowered for the intended target as they are. It's like shooting concrete. In fact, I don't think I've ever heard of a cow going down from a frontal skull shot from a handgun. If the LEOs and DAs believe this guy, I'll bet there was only one round fired and the cow has a crease on its head. I wonder why he would feel the need to put the animal down anyway. That's blowing away a grand easy, unless the animal was mostly dead anyway.

I'm awaiting further details on thus one. When I was in Ft. Worth, a guy got crushed in his car when a refer truck jacknifed and turned over on an overhead ramp on the west side of town. Witnesses said it was like a thousand pound hockey puck. It slid across the fly-over and then flipped over the rail and down to this poor guy's car/head. By comparison, thus almost seems likely.

Dan
 

caltain

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Benefit of the doubt here...

I'd have thought you could put down a cow with a .40 or a .357, until I learned otherwise. Plus, even an animal control officer can hit a cow. From a couple feet. Can anyone get hold of the police report?
 

XD40coyote

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So would it be dangerous to shoot a dead cow's head with a .40 hardball? I know this dairy farmer who has a dead pile out back, sometimes the cows are fresh dead...

My neighbor took out an injured part grown steer ( 600 pounds?) with a 10mm, assuming the old hotter loads as it was years ago. Not sure where he hit it though, but pretty sure he would have finished it with a head shot.

Was in Dr's office today reading Outdoor Life or some such and there was an article about some guy who killed a mature bison with a .44 mag. Multi shots, but hey, that's a big beast.
 
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