Saturday, March 22, 2014

North Carolina Man Dead - He Was Target Shooting

Local news reports

A 23-year-old North Iredell man died Wednesday night after what is being investigated as an accidental shooting. Robert Nathan Tatum was transported from his home on Tatum Road in Olin on Wednesday night and died at a local hospital, said Iredell County Sheriff’s Office Maj. Darren Campbell. 

Campbell said Tatum was target shooting in an area behind his home Wednesday night. His wife, after not hearing from him for about an hour, went outside to check and found him unconscious and not breathing. She called authorities, and Iredell EMS and first responders came to the home. They reported that Tatum had a single gunshot wound to the chest. 

Campbell said an autopsy is being conducted Thursday afternoon, but it's possible that the shot that hit Tatum ricocheted off one of the steel targets. Campbell said he hopes the autopsy will shed light on what happened, but there are no signs of foul play and the gun Tatum was target shooting with was found near his body.

6 comments:

  1. What, Mikeb? No hysterical outrage over the lack of any indication that he will be buried under a prison?

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  2. Actually, it's highly unlikely that a round will come back at the shooter with sufficient energy to cause injury:

    http://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=5678&context=jclc

    Pending powder burn tests, my guess is that this is a suicide.

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    1. I thought that ricochet idea was a bit of a stretch.

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    2. I'd put my money on your guess, Greg, but one never knows. Unlikely as they may be, one in a million ricochets do happen.

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  3. Ricochets do happen and can be deadly. Just as shooting up in the air, that bullet has to come down somewhere. As Science tells us, the return vorticity is more than enough to kill.

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  4. This is MY son your talking about. I just love no it alls! It was a richocet!! Not suicide!

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