On the evening of 8 January 1998, our Son, Chad, a Senior at Oklahoma University home for Christmas break, was over at a highschool classmates house watching Thursday Night Football. At 1137 PM, this classmate picked up his own 9mm pistol, that was setting on an end table next to the couch that Chad had been sitting at all night, and while pointing the gun at Chad, chambered a round, squeezed the trigger and killed our Son. He said he didn't know the gun was loaded, even though he had fired this gun 7 days earlier and was the only person that loaded the clip with 5 rounds. The clip was loaded with 5 rounds when he shot and killed Chad. Two days before killing Chad, he was seen cleaning the same gun. DOES IT SOUND AS IF HE DIDN'T KNOW THE GUN WAS LOADED?
The day of the shooting, this young man had started drinking 6.0 Beer at 3PM and had continued drinking up until the time he SHOT AND KILLED CHAD. WAS THIS AN ACCIDENT OR INVOLUNTARY MANSLAUGHTER? He had violated all the principles of common gun safety and actions of a responsible individual. He assumed his gun was empty, he pointed this gun at our Son, and then he pulled the trigger.
The sad thing is our local, Small Town, Police Dept. wrote the killing up as accidental and never gave the young man a BAT test to determine his level of Alcohol content and the County Attorney declined to prosecute even after I filed charges with the District Court and a Judge ruled that there was sufficient evidence to warrant a charge of Involuntary Manslaughter.
On 9 May, 1998, Chad received his Degree in Jouralism, Posthumously, from Oklahoma University.
OUR LIVES HAVE NOT BEEN THE SAME SINCE THIS YOUNG MAN TOOK CHAD'S LIFE.