Police Kill 5-Year Old Boy While Shooting at Snake

NOBLE, Okla. — "A stray bullet fired by a police officer trying to shoot a snake hit and killed a 5-year-old boy fishing at a nearby pond, officials said.

Austin Haley was fishing with his grandfather, Jack Tracy, Friday evening when Tracy said he heard a shot and saw a bullet hit the water just a few feet in front of the boat dock where he was standing.

Moments later, a second shot was fired that hit Austin in the head.

A Noble police officer who had responded to a report of a snake in a tree apparently fired the deadly shot while trying to kill the snake, according to City Manager Bob Wade.

Tracy said he initially thought he and his grandson were under attack by someone trying to kill them, so he put the boy in the back of a 4-wheeler and drove to his daughter's house about 200 yards away.

"Then two officers came out of the brush over there," he told The Oklahoman. "They didn't tell us they were the ones who had been shooting or that they had shot him. They didn't admit a doggone thing."

The boy was taken to an Oklahoma City hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Tracy has little doubt about what happened.

"I'm not saying the cop shot him on purpose," Tracy said. "It was an accident. But let me tell you — if I had a kid and put him in this car and didn't put him in a car seat and he got killed on the way to town, they'd charge me with murder ... and what this cop did is a lot worse than that."

Sorry for your loss, Mr. Tracy, please accept my heartfelt condolences. You make a great deal of sense in describing the difference between yourself and the Special People who work for your local politicians. The man responsible for this will be reprimanded, and that's probably all. His not knowing his field of fire is criminal negligence, but that would only count were it you or I doing the shooting, sir. Comes with the territory of living in this day and age, with unqualified mercenary forces becoming their own law. Answering to their own kind.

Your name was published, along with the name of your grandson. They even included the boy's picture. Search as hard as you can for the name of the man who shot him, and do everything in your power to force them to include it the next time a journalist wants to continue with this story. The community needs to know who can kill one of our kids and be sheltered from society's wrath.