Indiana man charged after accidentally shooting daughter

[Judi Lynn]

Updated 6:00 pm, Monday, June 12, 2017


HOBART, Ind. (AP) — Prosecutors have filed neglect and reckless homicide charges against the father of a 9-year-old northwestern Indiana girl shot to death when his firearm accidentally discharged.

The Lake County Prosecutor's Office said Monday that Eric Scott Hummel of Hobart also is charged with battery in the fatal shooting of Olivia Hummel.

The (Northwest Indiana) Times reports (http://bit.ly/2rowdTe ) family members told police the father was showing a firearm to Olivia and her brothers Saturday afternoon when it discharged, striking the girl in the head.

The father was being held at the Lake County Jail in Crown Point, about 40 miles (65 kilometers) southeast of Chicago.

http://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/Police-Indiana-girl-9-fatally-shot-as-dad-11213056.php

(Short article, no more at link.)

[bettyellen]

1. Good. He is a fucking idiot.

[Aristus]

2. Accident nothing.

He bought the gun deliberately. He loaded the gun deliberately. And he picked up and held the gun deliberately. Everything that happened after that was a product of deliberate action.

He should be charged with first-degree murder.

[billh58]

3. "when his firearm accidentally discharged"

Really? Because someone negligently pulled the trigger? This is another case of a gun doing exactly what it was designed to do: kill.

[shenmue]

4. ...

That poor girl.

[luvMIdog]

5. geez

[Hoyt]

6. How nice, Daddy teaching his kids about guns. Another avoidable tragedy.

[Phoenix61]

7. How tragic for the whole family

I don't imagine there's anything a jury can do to him that will make him feel worse than he must already feel.

[billh58]

8. Really?

So just console this "responsible gun owner" and wipe his tears away? He is guilty of negligent homicide at the least, and he deserves prison time for killing an innocent victim. Yes, a jury can make him feel worse, and they should.

[Phoenix61]

9. His daughter is dead and he is responsible

What could possibly be worse than that? He already has a life sentence. I didn't say anything about not charging him but how can you not feel some sense of compassion for him not to mention his family. His wife lost her daughter, his children lost their sister. They now face losing their father. I'd say that's tragic all the way around.

Just to be clear, I hate handguns. I don't think they should legal at all, period. They are designed to kill people and situations like this happen too often. That doesn't stop my heart from breaking for him and his family.

[billh58]

10. I have absolutely no sympathy

for this deplorable gun worshiper. None. May he rot in prison. He deliberately chose to bring a lethal weapon into contact with his daughter, and to show it off. She's dead, and this asswipe needs to pay for his reckless behavior. It was not a fucking accident! It was deliberate negligence.