Tacoma Washington Teen Gets 10 Years for Unintentional Shooting Death

Tanielu Lotovaivai


Jalon Bea


Local news reports

Just last fall, Jalon Bea and Tanielu Lotovaivai were young men going places.

Described as affable, ambitious and hard-working, both had bright futures ahead of them, their families and friends said.

Lotovaivai’s decision to point what he thought was an unloaded gun at Bea and pull the trigger ended all that.

Bea, 17, died after being shot in the chest. Lotovaivai was arrested and earlier this year pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter.

On Friday, all the pain and misery that decision spawned came to a head in Pierce County Superior Court, where Lotovaivai was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Tears flowed freely on both sides of the gallery.

Read more here: http://www.thenewstribune.com/2014/06/06/3231369/man-gets-10-years-in-accidental.html?sp=/99/296/331/#storylink=cpy

Nearly Half of Florida's Non-Fatal Gun Shot Incidents are Unintentional Shootings

Orlando Sentinal

It's not armed robbers or warring gangs who send the greatest percentage of gunshot survivors to Florida emergency rooms.

It's people who shoot someone, or themselves, accidentally.

Four out of every 10 people who are rushed to a Florida hospital or emergency room with a nonfatal wound were shot by accident, according to hospital data collected by the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration and published by the Florida Department of Health.

It's a far bigger problem in Florida than elsewhere — double the national average the past three years — according to numbers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In Orange County, it's even worse: More than half of the people treated for nonfatal gunshot injuries last year were shot accidentally.