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NOBLE, Okla. - Ten days after a police officer accidentally shot and killed a 5-year-old boy, city officials continued to decline Monday to identify the officer or other policemen present at the time of the shooting.


A Noble police officer was trying to shoot what he thought was a rattlesnake in a birdhouse at a house on Aug. 3 when Austin Gabriel Haley was hit by the bullet as he stood on a dock at a pond in a wooded area near the house, City Manager Bob Wade said.

Two other officers, including a sergeant, were there at the time of the shooting of what turned out to be a harmless black rat snake that is sometimes mistaken for a dangerous snake, he said. A .40-caliber handgun was used in the shooting.

The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation is looking into whether any crime was committed, and the Noble police department is conducting its own internal investigation.

OSBI spokeswoman Jessica Brown said her agency will not identify the officers involved because nobody has been arrested.

Wade said the Noble city attorney's office has advised him not to identify the officers until any potential disciplinary findings are written. He said he hopes the internal investigation is finished in "a couple of weeks."

The internal investigation will center on whether police policies were violated.

"We have a use of force policy that even has a section that deals with shooting an animal," Wade said. "And it pretty much lays it out that it has to be a threat. The shooting has to be the result of a situation that endangers human life."

The city of Noble had no animal control officer at the time of the shooting. Still, there were options open to the officers other than gunfire, Wade said.

"There are all kind of things they might have done," he said. "They could have requested animal control from a nearby town. They could simply have left the snake alone; he probably would have left.

"They might have sent for other equipment more effective in pulling it out or killing it.

"I could personally think of a half dozen things I could do before shooting into the air, if ever, in a residential area."

Noble Police Chief Ben Daves said that with the three policemen on administrative leave, Noble has seven police officers, including himself, and officers have been working overtime to cover all of the work shifts.

He said someone from the department is in contact with the three officers involved on a daily basis. He said the officers are distraught.




Taken from the NewsOK website.

Wade said the Noble city attorney's office has advised him not to identify the officers until any potential disciplinary findings are written.

Is that standard practice, or even legal?

Dan

"officers are distraught", I should hope so. I don't know how they can sleep at night.

I feel bad for everyone involved. That officer is going to carry that with him for the rest of his life... as are the boy's relatives. And it is always a tragedy when a child doesn't get a chance to grow up.

I fail to understand this line though... "The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation is looking into whether any crime was committed"

A weapon was fired recklessly and the bullet hit and killed an innocent bystander. How in the world could a crime not have been committed? It would be different if the officer had fired his weapon out of necessity, but that's not what we're dealing with.

Anyway... it's a horrible tragedy all around.

Sangiovese wrote:That officer is going to carry that with him for the rest of his life...

But at least he has the rest of his life...

Yeah......................

they make shot shell for thaT VERY REASON` in all calibers !, my side arm has all hollow point silvertip man stoppers, my shoulder arm( mod 36 3"bbl) has two shotshellss followed by hollow point man killers and i am not a cop but I live by a gun 2 matter fact,,
sorry no sympathye here !!

I get madder everytime i read this , i have a 12 yr old grandson and we fish alot together makes me think twice about taking him anywhere!!
Shot shells where were the shot shells ??[/b]

Shotshells by hiney, tha snake was harmless!!! Why kill him anyway??? If it was a viper, ok, kill it. But a rat snake..............I mean, at least they have a job, eating rats. Most people in farm country understand this, we would rather have harmless snakes around than rats and mice which have a bad habit of knawing through barn walls to get at the feed. I don't kill good snakes. This was just stupid and ill advised.

comment on this story

Public due more information on Noble police shooting
The Norman Transcript

The lingering pain from the Noble police shooting accident that killed a 5-year-old boy more than two weeks ago remains numbing for family and friends of all involved.

We include the police officers in that pain and all agree it was a terrible set of circumstances. The Noble police's continued lack of information, however, is exacerbating that pain.

We requested an official copy of the radio transmission days after an officer, apparently with the blessing of a supervisor, shot at a snake dangling from a birdhouse. Three unnamed officers have been suspended.

The one-page copy provided the newspaper had 72 entries marked through with a black pen. Additionally, there were no radio log entries for about two and a half hours after the shooting. At our request, the city's attorney was looking into the issue Tuesday afternoon.

On the advice of our own attorney, we later requested and were denied an unredacted copy and the actual audio from the radio transmission. Noble officials said the material had been turned over to the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation. The OSBI has now completed its investigation. Their report goes to District Attorney Greg Mashburn.

Families will have to deal with the loss forever. It's beyond time for the Noble police to be more forthcoming with their released information. The public has a right to know more about the tragic set of circumstances that unfolded on that summer afternoon.



Still stalling.

Dan

I'm stilll mad !! to me any snake is dead

Do you kill horney toads too?? There as harmless as that rat snake. It does no good to kill harmless snakes, no good at all.

Dan

You should have told those cops that!! What I am saying if they were gonna kill it they should have used some other way, like a snake killing tree climbing bullet proof horney toad!! Horney toad

I should'nt have to tell them that, they should have learned that in their training. My dad taught me when I was very young that you NEVER fired a gun unless you knew where your bullet was going to go. These people have no buisness carring a gun. They need a job selling shoes or pitching hay or something where the public is not at risk. (I still don't get your 'snake killing tree climbing bullet proof horney toad!! Horney toad' comment.)

Report on Noble shooting sent to D.A.
The Norman Transcript

Transcript Staff Writer

A more extensive Noble Police radio log detailing the accidental shooting that claimed the life of a 5-year-old Noble boy was released Thursday.

The boy was accidentally shot Aug. 3 by a Noble police officer. The officer had responded to an animal control call and tried to shoot a snake in a nearby bird house. One of the two shots fired struck Austin Haley in the head while he was fishing at a pond with family members in Noble.

The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation sent its official report about the shooting death to District Attorney Greg Mashburn earlier this week. An official in the D.A.'s office said Mashburn would not comment until he went through the report, which may take a few weeks.

Mashburn, speaking to a Norman Business Association meeting Aug. 24, said the decision he faces will be "one of the hardest things I've ever had to do as a prosecutor."

He said he would be meeting with the young victim's family and that would have some bearing on his decision.

An expanded copy of the radio log was released to The Transcript by Noble's attorney, David Perryman, Thursday. A copy of the police radio log was originally requested under the open records act Aug. 9. Perryman declined to comment on the log or the slow response to requests for a complete log.

A limited and redacted copy was sent to The Transcript Aug. 9, which left a 2 1/2 hour gap between the time "shots fired" was called in and the next radio call.

In the expanded copy released to the newspaper Thursday, the information about the person who made the original animal complaint was included.

A resident who lived in the 300 block of Crest Lane in Noble called the Noble Police Department at 7:42 p.m. to report a snake hanging from the porch of another house on the block.

The names of the officers who responded were redacted and still have not been released by the Noble Police Department.

For the animal complaint, one officer was called at 7:42 p.m. and arrived at the scene at 7:46 p.m.

At 7:51, the log states that the officer attempted but failed to make contact with the owner of the house where the snake was. The officer was "attempting to get snake unhung," according to the log.

At 7:53 two more officers were called, arriving on the scene at 8 p.m.

The next call to the Noble Police Department was at 8:12 p.m.

One of the officers called in, reporting a "male with head injury hurt bad," according to the log.

Renee Haley, Austin's mother, called the department seconds later and said her son was shot, according to the log. She said she did not know who shot him. She said she left her son at the pond to call for help. She was asked for updates on her son and told to remain calm, according to the log.

The log also showed that a squad was waiting for air evacuation at the high school at 8:25 p.m., but at 8:38, air evacuation refused to fly the patient.

The ambulance arrived shortly after and took Austin to the Norman Regional Hospital emergency room.

The medical examiner, 10 Noble police officers, Norman police, Noble firefighters and OSBI were all at the scene at various times.

The scene was not closed until 2:33 a.m. Aug. 4.

It appears that the three officers originally involved were taken to the Norman Police Department at 9:45 p.m. They were all listed as "completed" at 2:18 a.m. Aug. 4, according to the log. All have been suspended pending the investigation.

Julianna Parker

366-3550

jparker@normantranscript.com



Stonewalling at its finest.

Dan