Rochester pastor charged in shooting that wounded granddaughter he mistook for intruder

[Robb]

ROCHESTER, Minnesota — A Rochester pastor is charged with a felony for shooting and wounding his granddaughter after mistaking her for an intruder last month.

Sixty-one-year-old Stanley Wilkinson is charged with intentional discharge of a firearm that endangered safety. A court appearance is scheduled Feb. 25.

Wilkinson told police he grabbed his pistol after hearing a noise outside his house Dec. 10 and fired two rounds after seeing what he thought was someone trying to open the deck door. It turned out to be his 16-year-old granddaughter, who was struck once in the neck.

http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/c324605b23f949d589516b56d69d2660/MN--Granddaughter-Shot
http://blogs.citypages.com/blotter/2013/01/stanley_wilkinson_rochester_pastor_faces_felony_for_accidentally_shooting_granddaughter.php

[Bjorn Against]

1. That is the town I grew up in

While the city has started to turn blue over the past few years as it has grown more diverse, it has long had a lot of Republican wing-nuts. While there are lots of great people in Rochester it does not surprise me to see this kind of story come out of that town because there are some big NRA types down there.

[Robb]

2. I wonder if he feels at all duped

...by the "safer with a gun" crowd.

[FunkyLeprechaun]

19. Me too

I went to mhs, class of 2000. I know of some rw nut jobs in the city.

[Bjorn Against]

25. Wow, who knows we may have met at one time

I graduated from John Marshall Hign School in '96 and moved to the Twin Cities area right after graduation, but my entire childhood was spent in Rochester.

[FunkyLeprechaun]

31. Probably!

I'm the same, lived in Rochester full time until 2000 (entire childhood) on and off until 2006 (when I went to Boston for university) and I finally moved to the UK in 2006. I lived in two areas of Rochester- the Greenbriar Neighborhood and the Pill Hill Area, both SW Rochester. I did go to a JM vs Mayo game around 1995 or 1996 with my sister (who was at MHS, graduated 1997).

You probably went to school with my transliterator's son, whose first name escapes me- his last name was Anderson. I think he graduated the same year as you.

[ManiacJoe]

3. Textbook example of the violation of Safety Rule #4.

[Robb]

4. "Don't handle a weapon while freaking out?"

[ManiacJoe]

5. #4: Know your target, what is behind it, and what is beyond it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Cooper#Firearms_safety

[Robb]

7. Clearly your rules have all the binding authority of the food pyramid.

I doubt the granddaughter feels safer for the recitation.

[ManiacJoe]

8. Well, at least you have been educated now.

If it saves just one life....

[Robb]

9. Self-policing the gun community is a clear failure.

[customerserviceguy]

29. That could be said about traffic laws, too

The only laws that either cars or fired ammunition behave 100% of the time are the laws of physics.

I don't see gun safety accidents as being any more or less tragic than automobile misjudgments that result in injury or death due to the abilities (or lack thereof) by a driver.

[pkdu]

14. Riiight . , like the cops outside Empire State Building recently ...or anyone else suddenly

"needing to open fire" ...they survey the surroundings , think about the target , look whats behind hit ( really?)....then look off to whats beyond it ( really , really ??) ...all in less than a split second?

Rule #4 might apply in a closed range target shoot , but not in real life. ( again , see cop shootings outside ESB last year)

[Cynicus Emeritus]

18. Talk about public endangerment

With "well trained" cops like that it is a wonder that more bystanders and officers were not hit by "friendly fire" and killed. They should have tried to apprehend the perp away from the crowds with plain clothes and avoided a firefight. FUBAR



Progressive, populist, libertarian and other stuff too. My cat can't be herded and neither can I.

[bluestate10]

6. Don't wait until you see the whites of their eyes, fire away. F'ing idiot, could have

killed the child and certainly have messed her up for life psychologically.

[Logical]

10. This should be automatic jail time. 6 months! 12 months!

[Spryguy]

11. Throw him in prison

and seize his guns.

[RetroLounge]

12. If only she had a gun too

or something.

RL

[ChairmanAgnostic]

26. she could have shot the bullet before his shot struck her! Shame on her

for not being armed.

[RetroLounge]

32. Exactly

It's her own fault for not protecting her 2nd amendment rights by being armed and shooting the bullet.

RL

[Liberal_in_LA]

13. glad she lived

[Zoeisright]

15. Oh, but wasn't he a

RESPONSIBLE gun owner?



This is exactly the kind of thing Kellerman was talking about in the study that proved a gun in the house is 43 times more likely to injure or kill a family member.

[ManiacJoe]

16. Not injured, just killed.

The Kellermann study only looked at dead victims. The living victims were not considered.

[proud2BlibKansan]

17. If she had been armed . . .

they could BOTH be dead.

[Fumesucker]

20. "Stanley Wilkinson also told police he couldn't see well without his glasses."

The article says he can get up to five years, he needs to do the full five years.

I'm not normally in the throw the book at them camp but this guy should have known better than to do what he did.

And this guy is a spiritual advisor? Jesus wept.

[Robb]

21. Jesus ducked.

[NMDemDist2]

24. ROFL!!!! n/t

[rgbecker]

22. The unasked question:

What is going on in these neighborhoods or these people's minds that would get them thinking people were breaking into their houses?

"Wilkinson told police he had been on edge due to a recent break-in nearby. "

That's it?

[MineralMan]

23. Well, I suppose that will teach her not to sneak out at

night when staying at her grandparents' house.

The "pastor" is a moron, and should get a felony conviction and lose his rights to possess firearms. That's a minimum, I think.

[tblue]

27. If your Grandpa keeps a gun,

and tends to get "on edge" and can't see without his glasses, live somewhere else.

[Nye Bevan]

28. Has anyone ever done an analysis on how many family members and friends are accidentally shot

when they are mistaken for intruders, versus how many actual intruders are shot or stopped by homeowners wielding guns?

Because the first type of story seems to vastly outnumber the second type.

[Kalidurga]

30. First off why would you shoot someone that is outside your home?

Wouldn't it be a bit better to call 911? Or maybe ask who they are before shooting them, that might have saved this guy from shooting his granddaughter who now has to deal with emotional and a physical scar. I think it's still against the law in Minnesota to shoot people outside your home. It should be against the law to shoot people that aren't an immediate threat, perhaps even if they are actually in your home. An unarmed intruder will probably cooperate just by having a gun held on him/her.

[jeff47]

33. Bah! You're just soft on criminals!!!!

Gotta shoot 'em before they commit any crime! That way we'll be safe.