“Cavalier” acts end in fatal shooting

Cavalier incidents including shooting at puddles and wrestling a firearm led to the death of a teenager at Neerim East, the Latrobe Valley Magistrates’ Court heard on Friday.

Prosecution counsel Justin Lewis said “cavalier behaviour” among close friends had ended in the fatal shooting of Dustin Buckley.

Lachlan Ward, 20 of Rokeby and Daniel McConnell, 26 of Munro, were charged in October last year with manslaughter and other offences following the death of Mr Buckley, 17, in August 2017.

Mr Lewis told the court Mr McConnell had observed “outrageous use” of firearms leading up to the shooting.

“He was dealing with two people who he had just observed commit flagrant breaches of firearm safety,” he said.

The committal hearing before Magistrate Russell Kelly on Friday was held via video link between all parties.

The court heard cousins Mr Ward and Mr McConnell were shooting at Neerim East with Mr Buckley who was a close friend of the two accused. Both Mr Ward and Mr Buckley held junior firearms licences while Mr McConnell had a full licence.

Representing Mr Ward, Sam Norton of Stary Norton Halphen, outlined the events that led to Mr Buckley’s death.

He said Mr Ward sat the firearm on the bonnet of the car and “Dusty grabbed it off with the barrel pointing towards him.”

Mr Norton said Mr Ward had gone over the event every day in his head and remembered Mr Buckley’s hand being on the firearm but didn’t know where his other hand was.

Mr Ward told police he tried to grab the firearm off Mr Buckley and his fingers must have been in the way on the trigger.

Mr Norton said Mr Ward estimated the firearm was about “eight inches” from Mr Buckley’s head when it fired, which was consistent with expert evidence presented in the hand-up brief to the court.

In his interview with police, Mr Ward said he had listened for the last bullet going into the chamber and thought it had fired.

Mr Ward told police he tried to grab the firearm because he didn’t like “that sort of stuff.”

Police asked if he checked if the firearm was loaded. “Not at the time because you don’t have time to think about it. You are just trying to stope someone from something that is fatal. It was a spur of the moment thing, I didn’t have time to play out the scenarios,” Mr Ward said.

Mr Norton said there was not sufficient evidence to demonstrate Mr Ward acted with criminal negligence.

“He vehemently denies deliberately pulling the trigger and there is no evidence of that,” he said.

Mr McConnell was represented by barrister James Anderson. Mr Anderson said Mr McConnell did not see the incident that led to Mr Buckley’s death.

Mr Anderson said the prosecution claimed Mr McConnell had a duty of care as the older person and the holder of a full licence.

But, he said, Mr Ward and Mr Buckley were more experienced shooters, having had their licences since they were 12, undertaken firearm courses and grown up with families who used firearms.

Mr Anderson said the brief to the court outlined a number of events leading up to the incident that killed Mr Buckley.

He said the two younger shooters had been “shooting at puddles” which was stupid conduct but it had not caused Mr Buckley’s death.

“He (Mr McConnell) told the other two to knock it off and they were going. He turned his back on the two experienced firearm users.

“He is wracked by guilt and he wishes with the benefit of hindsight he’d done more.

“Let’s say my client was watching the other two at the time that the deceased points the gun at his own head and Mr Ward intervenes. It’s unclear how my client watching at that time would’ve made a difference,” he said

Mr Anderson said if Mr McConnell had taken the firearms off everyone, it may have resulted in a different outcome because he was juggling three firearms.

He said it was not foreseeable to Mr McConnell their behaviour would escalate to such a risky extent.

Prosecution counsel Justin Lewis said Mr Ward was “grossly negligent” in his failure to ensure the gun was empty and then wrestling with Mr Buckley for the gun.

He said part of the Crown’s case was the fact the weapon was loaded when it shouldn’t have been.

Mr Lewis said Mr Ward had been “very flimsy” in determining whether he had fired all the bullets.

“He then wrestled for his weapon without knowing it was loaded,” he said.

Mr Lewis said the “use of the firearm leading to the death was cavalier.”

He told the court there was a lot of “joking and fooling about with firearms…a lot of which was very dangerous.”

“It was not a single act of Mr Ward trying to pull the firearm away.

“This joking around, stupidity and wrestling around with firearms created a distinct danger…and the result was not entirely unpredicted at the end of the day,” he said.

Mr Lewis argued Mr McConnell’s duty of care included supervision of two junior shooters.

The record of interview showed police asked Mr McConnell what he did when the other two were shooting at puddles.

“You need to cut that shit out and stop being dickheads,” Mr McConnell answered.

Mr Lewis said Mr McConnell had let “all sorts of things go on” by not acting, or acting in a totally ineffectual way, when he should have been supervising two junior licence holders.

The hearing was adjourned until October 2 when Mr Kelly will present his findings and determine whether the two men should face trial by jury.

Applications for two Baw Baw Shire sponsorships - community and education - are now open.

Eligible schools in the shire have until October 16 to nominate outstanding students for a $250 cash award plus certificate.

Each of the schools can nominate two students in years nine to 12 or aged between 15 and 21 that have shown outstanding qualities in two or more of five attributes - authentic, pragmatic, respectful, optimistic and supportive.

Education providers can apply for a second award to recognise a student that is Aboriginal or a Torres Strait Islander.

Schools eligible to nominate students are Chairo Christion School (Drouin campus), Community College Gippsland (Warragul campus), Drouin Secondary College, TAFE Gippsland (Warragul campus), Lowanna College Newborough, Marist-Sion College,

Neerim District Secondary College, St Paul?s Anglican Grammar School, Trafalgar High School, Warragul and District Specialist School and Warragul Regional College.

Community sponsorships are available for individuals, teams and to support events and programs for youth and new and existing events in the shire.

Applications are open until November 1 but those seeking sponsorship of community events run by not-for-profit organisations need to first contact council?s events co-ordinator for guidance on planning, permit and insurance requirements.

Community grants up to $500 are available. Grants to individuals of up to $500 and to $1500 for teams are offered for arts, sporting academic or environmental endeavours.

Second and third rounds of the sponsorship programs will open in January and April next year.