Parents sue after son is killed with 'prop' gun in school play

[proud2BlibKansan]

Police, school sued over 'prop' gun death

Ron and Cathie Thayer will celebrate Mother's Day this weekend for the first time without their son, Tucker.

It's a milestone they've been dreading: Tucker, killed in November while handling a "prop" pistol to be used in a school production of "Oklahoma!," would have turned 16 Friday. Mother's Day often doubled as a birthday party.

Dealing with how Tucker died has been difficult for the family. Ron Thayer said he and his wife have not received satisfactory answers from police and school district officials about why the shooting happened and what is being done to make sure it never happens again.

The Thayers' attorney, Jeff Wilcox, recently notified the St. George Police Department, Washington County School District, and the parent who provided the gun, that they plan to file a lawsuit over their son's death. Ron Thayer says a lack of accountability by the school, police and parent in providing a real gun for the musical without notifying parents or requiring safety procedures is driving the effort.

more . . . http://www.sltrib.com/justice/ci_12310685

[Liberal_in_LA]

1. a famous model killed himself playing around with a prop gun..can't recall his name

[Gabi Hayes]

3. john eric hexum? it was a .45, real gun, IIRC, and he shot himself with a blank,

putting it right up to his head.

the concussion killed him, even though there was no bullet in the real gun

[Gabi Hayes]

4. here:

http://www.findadeath.com/Deceased/h/Jon%20Eric%20Hexum/jon_erik_hexum.htm

[Liberal_in_LA]

26. yeah, that's the guy.

[Bolo Boffin]

5. Jon-Erik Hexum

It was the padding in the blank cartridge that Hexum fired into his temple that killed him.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon-Erik_Hexum

Brandon Lee's death was even worse. A slug from a load-less prop bullet had fallen out into the chamber. When a blank cartridge was then placed in that gun, there was for all intents and purposes a live bullet in the gun. When the gun was fired, Brandon Lee was killed on the set of The Crow.

[Liberal_in_LA]

27. You guys/gals have good memories!

[OwnedByFerrets]

6. Brandon Lee was the first that came to mind.

Not a model, but a movie star.

On March 31, 1993, while making The Crow, the crew filmed a scene in which Lee's character walked into his apartment and discovered his girlfriend being raped by thugs. Actor Michael Massee, who played one of the film's villains (Fun-boy), was supposed to fire a gun at Eric Draven (Brandon Lee) as he walked into his apartment.

Because the movie's second unit team was running behind schedule, it was decided that dummy cartridges (cartridges that outwardly appear to be functional but contain no gunpowder or primer) would be made from real cartridges by pulling out the bullet, dumping out the gunpowder and reinserting the bullet. However, the team neglected to consider that the primer was still live and, if fired, could still produce enough force to push the bullet off the end of the cartridge. At some point prior to the fatal scene, the live primer on one of the constructed dummy rounds was discharged by persons unknown while in the pistol's chamber. It caused a squib load, in which the primer provided just enough force to push the bullet out of the cartridge and into the barrel of the revolver, where it became stuck.

The malfunction went unnoticed by the crew, and the same gun was used again later to shoot the death scene, having been re-loaded with low-power black powder blanks. However, the squib load was still lodged in the barrel, and was propelled by the blank cartridge's explosion out of the barrel and into Lee's body. Although the bullet was traveling much slower than a normally fired bullet would be, the bullet's large size and the point-blank firing distance made it powerful enough to fatally wound Lee.

When the blank was fired, the bullet shot out and hit Lee in the abdomen and lodged in his spine. He fell down instantly and the director shouted, "Cut!" When Lee did not respond, the cast and crew rushed to him and found that he was wounded. He was immediately rushed to the hospital. Lee’s heart stopped once on the set and once in the ambulance. Following a six hour operation to remove the bullet, and despite being given 60 pints of blood, Lee was pronounced dead at 1:03 pm on March 31, 1993. He was 28 years old.

Lee's body was flown to Jacksonville, North Carolina, where an autopsy was performed. He was then flown to Seattle, Washington, where he was buried next to his father at Lake View cemetery, a cemetery plot that Linda Lee Cadwell had originally reserved for herself.

The private funeral took place in Seattle, Washington, on April 3, 1993. Only close family and friends were permitted to attend, including Lee's immediate family as well as Eliza's parents and younger sister, who flew in from Missouri. The following day, 250 of Lee's family, friends and business associates attended a memorial service in Los Angeles, held at the house of actress Polly Bergen, with whom Lee had regularly played backgammon.

The gravestone, designed by North Snohomish County sculptor Kirk McLean, is a tribute to Lee and Eliza's young love. Its two twisting rectangles of charcoal granite join at the bottom and pull apart at the top. "It represents Eliza and Brandon, the two of them, and how the tragedy of his death separated their mortal life together," said his mother, Linda Lee Cadwell, who described son, like father, as a poetic and romantic person. <4>

The shooting was ruled an accident.

[dysfunctional press]

2. why in the world would they ever use a real gun for a school play?

that's just insane at the get-go.

[madaboutharry]

7. It is just unbelievable.

It is just beyond comprehension.

[Mugu]

8. I've long maintained that there is no excuse for having a weapon

that can chamber a live cartridge on a set. That said, anything that uses an explosive is by its very nature dangerous and can cause grievous injury if misused.

[krispos42]

18. Exactly

They make 8mm-caliber lookalike guns that fire 8mm blanks for the movies and such. I understand that they even load, cycle, and eject like real guns.

And 8mm is not a pistol caliber (at least not since WW2 Japan) so mix-ups are not possible.

http://www.8mmblankgun.com/

[proud2BlibKansan]

11. The article says they thought the school resource officer checked out the gun

before they agreed to use it in the play.

[dysfunctional press]

30. that doesn't make it any less insane.

i would hope that EVERYONE in 'authority' at that school that knew about the gun being there is shit-canned from their jobs- because they are too stupid to have them.

[muriel_volestrangler]

14. Especially since it was "to be used as an off-stage sound effect"

All you need is a recording. These days, with mp3s, you can press a button for any common sound effect.

[onehandle]

20. Guns aren't dangerous, they're tools.

Perfectly safe. In the minds of gun fetishists.

[ManiacJoe]

33. You are confused.

Guns are very dangerous. It is that attribute that makes them useful as tools.

[LWolf]

9. I cannot understand

how anyone connected with the school would allow a gun on campus, locked or not.

[proud2BlibKansan]

12. Real or fake

In my state, that would be illegal. School play or not.

[LWolf]

24. As it should be.

I can't imagine something like that being allowed on campus, and I can't imagine nobody checking all the props for safety.

[proud2BlibKansan]

28. My DH has some swords from the Civil War

They belonged to his grandfather. Not sharp at all - only decorative. His sister wanted to borrowed them for her daughter to take to school and the school said no way.

[LWolf]

31. As I expect most schools would.

I really don't understand how actual guns can fly under the radar.

:wtf:

[EFerrari]

21. A similar but nonfatal incident happened when I was in college

in the theater. I don't know who the idiot was that decided to use a real gun but one of the actors was shot at a small, open air production and had to be rushed to the hospital for surgery. We were lucky only ONE person was shot especially given that the audience was sitting very close to the stage. No one on the faculty knew about the gun until the real shot rang out.

[LWolf]

23. That seems to be the common thread;

faculty isn't checking out the props.

As they should.

[EFerrari]

25. Twice because, iirc, the group at my school worked with a prop

in rehearsal but some idiot showed up with a real gun on stage. It's hard to stop a young adult who is so bent and determined to engage in such risky behavior.

[MineralMan]

10. They should, and will, receive a large sum from this.

It is simply unconscionable that a real gun was used at all in the play. I don't know if it was a pistol or rifle, but someone was incredibly stupid.

If the school's insurance company has any sense, they will be proposing a very large settlement.

[krispos42]

13. They make airsoft guns for a reason

$19.97 plus S&H.

http://www.hobbytron.com/AirsoftPistolGunSpringSDUA961BH.html




This was less than intelligent. At absolute minimum, you pull out the firing pin. But for $20, you can buy a replica. You can get a plastic squirt gun for a couple of bucks and spray-paint it silver or black, too.

[msongs]

15. since when has shooting a gun been part of the musical "Oklahoma"? nt

[proud2BlibKansan]

16. I was trying to remember that scene too

But it has been a long time since I have seen it.

[teenagebambam]

19. It's a scene between Curly and Jud in Act 1

[GReedDiamond]

17. The article at the Salt Lake Tribune link says...

...that the mistaken "prop" gun was "to be used as an off-stage sound effect." Which makes this tragedy all the more stupid and ridiculous. I (or anyone else) can find downloadable audio clips of gun shots through google in less than thirty seconds. Assuming that this student production utilized some sort of P.A. system, what is the need at all for a "prop" gun of any kind, much less allowing a real gun into the production, unknowingly or otherwise?

Edited for typo.

[GKirk]

22. It certainly sounds like an immense

cluster fuck. So sad for the family, and I suppose for whoever pulled the trigger too.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

29. Well, a real gun is going to sound better, but definitely unnecessary for just a school production

When I was working on a professional production of "Of Mice & Men" we used a real Beretta off-stage for when Lenny gets shot at the end. The safety we went through on it was stringent. I had to take some gun safety (I was the shooter). I had to have witnesses watch me load it with blanks pre-show. Both gun and blanks were kept locked up, and only me and the stage manager had the key. Once the gun was loaded, I (with witness) cocked it and locked it in the box backstage. I wasn't allowed to unlock the box, until I was given the cue. After the show, the blank had to be found and saved.

This was a union production.

[Blue_Tires]

32. why not just use a starter pistol and be done with it?

it's a goddamned high school production, not $100-million-dollar hollywood...