Prison for US horror crash man
Association says no law was broken in bizarre stunt
A MAN from St. Louis has been sentenced to 19 years in prison for causing a downtown accident that resulted in the amputation of the legs of a teenage volleyball player from Tennessee.
Daniel Riley (22) was convicted last month of second-degree assault, armed criminal action, fourth-degree assault and driving without a licence.
Judge Michael Noble followed the jury’s recommendation in sentencing Riley to 19 years.
“The verdict represents the judgment of the community,” he said.
Riley was out on bond when he sped through an intersection and struck an occupied car, then a parked car and pinned Janae Edmondson (17) between two vehicles.
THE Wild Deer Association of Ireland has insisted that no law was broken during the filming of a bizarre video in which the chairperson of the organisation was recorded shooting a deer that was already dead.
The WDAI, which promotes good practice and safety among hunters, also bizarrely said that Ger O’Brien had moved the carcass before shooting it in the head with a rifle.
Concerns had been raised after the video was posted on the group’s Facebook page.
Some posts questioned whether Mr O’Brien had discharged a firearm near a public road, which is against the law.
They also noted that guidance issued by the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) stipulates that a rifle with a minimum calibre of .240 should be used to dispatch deer.
In the video Mr O’Brien says that he was using a .22 calibre gun.
Some observers claimed that the deer which Mr O’Brien says he is about to “put down” in the video had already been dead.
Dead
The WDAI admitted that the animal was already dead when Mr O’Brien shot it, having died as the result of a road traffic accident.
They also said that the NPWS guidelines regarding the minimum calibre for hunting deer does not apply to the “humane dispatch” of a deer, for which any suitable calibre of firearm is acceptable.
In the video, Mr O’Brien says: “Hi, I’ve just been called out here again to a road traffic accident – a fallow buck – he’s lying on the side of the road here.
“We have our warning triangles out at both sides and what we’re going to use to put down this fella is a .22 with 40 grain solids, and that should do the job.”
He then says that he’s “going to cover his head with a blanket first” but then shoots it in the back of the head without any covering.
The WDAI said the video had been posted on their Facebook page by mistake. In a statement, they said: “Mr O’Brien has been shooting for over four decades and has never carried out anything illegal when it comes to deer management.”