Florida man (Shea Hawkins) charged with manslaughter after shooting friend with Colt M4 rifle

[commodon]

Florida makes the headlines again...

A Florida man has been charged with manslaughter after he pointed a rifle at his friend and pulled the trigger, thinking the weapon was unloaded, authorities said.

The victim, Sean Cook, 26, died after being shot in the chest.

Cook went to his friend Shea Harkins' house in Palm Harbor on Thursday night to play video games, the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office said.

Harkins, 26, told police the two were playing in his bedroom, and he left the room to retrieve his rifle, a Colt M4 he had been customizing.

Shea Harkins, 26, was charged with manslaughter after he admitted to police he shot his friend with a Colt M4 rifle he had been customizing.
Harkins said he returned to the bedroom and pointed the rifle at Cook as a joke. Cook asked Harkins, “What, are you going to shoot me?”

Harkins said he then pulled the trigger, believing the weapon to be unloaded, the sheriff's office said.

Cook was rushed to Mease Countryside Hospital where he was pronounced dead a short time later.

Harkins was arrested and charged Friday. He was released from the county jail after posting $10,000 bail.

From Florida man charged with manslaughter after shooting friend with rifle

 

[timbo]

JFC, how many times have we been told that every gun is loaded and never point it at anything you wouldn't want to shoot. I hope he ends up in the slammer for a serious amount of time so he can think about what he did. I feel bad for his friend's family.

 

[Dennis in MA]

If he didn’t have a 30rd mag, the guy would have lived.

 

[one-eyed Jack]

No mention of drugs or booze? That's usually 90% of the problem. Jack.

 

[dcmdon]

JFC, how many times have we been told that every gun is loaded and never point it at anything you wouldn't want to shoot. I hope he ends up in the slammer for a serious amount of time so he can think about what he did. I feel bad for his friend's family.

Age 26. It never happens like that with the M4 on Call of Duty!!.

 

[76Too]

isn't there a FL man thread?

regardless...he looks sad. stupid hurts (feelings).

there was a kid that didn't like me in Marine Corps Combat Training...I still honestly have no idea why. we were sitting in formation cleaning our rifles at the range and the kid stood up, pointed is assembled weapon at me from about 10 feet away and pulled the trigger. i was in shock, but when I heard the 'click' i got up so fast I tripped over the kid next to me (super graceful, I know). by the time I got back up, the other kid had been tackled by a platoon sgt that saw it all go down. they made this shit-bird clean M249's/M240B's every night for 4 hours after the range for a run of days...I think he was getting like 2 hours of sleep every night and it showed.

for those that have never been, combat training is about the easiest place in the marine corps to get a hold of loose ammo/explosives (other than combat, probably)...there's just SO f***ING MUCH OF IT, and while i'm sure there's accountability of the heavier munitions...M855 is NOT tracked round for round. there was definitely some potential for things to have been worse than they ended up being.

 

[dcmdon]

Though its not really manslaughter. Its negligent homicide.

 

[mothybee]

How else would you know it's empty? In all seriousness, I've seen this twice. Thank God the muzzle was turned away at the last moment. WTF!

 

[appraiser]

 

[cams]

M4 or an MForgery?

 

[gerrycaruso]

What a moron. Some people shouldn't be allowed to own guns and hopefully now he's one of them.

 

[TZCHRIS]

I like FL, been stuck here for a couple months, got my non res ltc in less than 2 weeks. The good news is lots of people here have guns, the bad news is lots of people here have guns. I'll take this over MA anyday.

 

[Wendell]

I can't believe that I'm the only one (apparently) who doesn't believe the shooter's story.

Not for a second.

 

[EddieZoom]

I can't believe that I'm the only one (apparently) who doesn't believe the shooter's story.

Not for a second.

I'm with you. 26 years old...."video games" in his buddies bedroom....hmmm. Even for Florida, that sounds suspect.

 

[308rifleman]

JFC, how many times have we been told that every gun is loaded and never point it at anything you wouldn't want to shoot. I hope he ends up in the slammer for a serious amount of time so he can think about what he did. I feel bad for his friend's family.

He should be read the ten commandments of firearms safety while being simultaneously struck upside the head with a two-by-four to make sure it gets through his thick skull!

 

[looser38]

Though its not really manslaughter. Its negligent homicide.

Either way, stupid is as stupid does!
And dead is dead!

 

[fshalor]

M4 or an MForgery?

That's what I was gonna ask. How did this kid have an M4?

Even though the result would have been the same with (insert any weapon here) due to (failure to follow the primary rule).

 

[Spider Jerusalem]

No mention of drugs or booze? That's usually 90% of the problem. Jack.

That still leaves the 10% for straight stupidity. Can't underestimate that.

I have had one- and only one- ND. Thankfully it was a CO2 pistol, and it was long ago.

But I was screwing around (as one does) and going through my collection of CO2 stuff and I picked up my favorite, a plain-jane Benjamin EB22 I *still* have. The safety was on, the pistol uncocked.

So I cocked it, clicked the cross-bolt safety, pointed it at a lamp... and promptly shattered the light bulb with the pellet and CO2 I did not realize was still in it.

My heart froze. On the plus side, that incident was *the* best case scenario. I was alone, air gun, lamp. Could have been the dog. A window... A real firearm.

I was insanely stupid. But also insanely lucky. This kid wasn't so lucky.

 

[drgrant]

I can't believe that I'm the only one (apparently) who doesn't believe the shooter's story.

Not for a second.

This is stereotypical florida though...

 

[PappyM3]

That's what I was gonna ask. How did this kid have an M4?

Even though the result would have been the same with (insert any weapon here) due to (failure to follow the primary rule).

Before Colt stopped selling to civilians last year, they offered a semi-auto 6920 variant with an “M4 Carbine” roll mark for a few years:

MSR - Colt's Manufacturing LLC

[elementor-template id="2683"]

www.colt.com

 

[Rob Boudrie]

I know a certain former big name shooter (retired from the business) who told me me he convinced his folks a hole in the wall of his parents house was from the cable TV installer.

 

[jpm]

I can't believe that I'm the only one (apparently) who doesn't believe the shooter's story.

Not for a second.

It does have a whiff of BS to it.

 

[dcmdon]

I know a certain former big name shooter (retired from the business) who told me me he convinced his folks a hole in the wall of his parents house was from the cable TV installer.

There are 2 kinds of shooters in this world. Those that have had a negligent discharge and those what WILL HAVE a negligent discharge.
If you follow the other 3 rules, nobody dies.

Humans are fallible. Even the best of us makes mistakes. But if your habits are good, you will have to make 3 or 4 mistakes in succession to have it hurt someone. Its called an accident chain.

 

[drgrant]

There are 2 kinds of shooters in this world. Those that have had a negligent discharge and those what WILL HAVE a negligent discharge.
If you follow the other 3 rules, nobody dies.

Humans are fallible. Even the best of us makes mistakes. But if your habits are good, you will have to make 3 or 4 mistakes in succession to have it hurt someone. Its called an accident chain.

Or in engineering terms, a tolerance stacking failure, if several things go wrong. If only one thing goes wrong, nobody gets hurt.

 

[dcmdon]

Kind of the same. Accident chain analysis originated in the aviation world.

This is a good article describing it.

AOPA asf/publications/inst_reports2.cfm

I was reminded of this kind of thing when I was taking a class at Academi. It was a carbine class and we were moving as a group. I swept a guys lower legs as we went into a "room". Nobody noticed, but I wanted to own the mistake. So I approached him and apologized.

He was the real deal ex something or other brushing up on his skills before shipping out to guard our embassy in Yemin, unlike 2 of the guys in the class. Me, the IT guy and a dentist. The guy who I swept looked at me and asked. "Was your finger out of the trigger guard? (yes). Was the rifle on "safe" (yes).

Ok, then no big deal. Big boy rules. he said to me.

In this case the accident chain would be 1) pointing the rifle at his legs. 2) gun on safe 3) finger inside trigger guard.

If I break 2 of the 3 rules, nobody gets hurt. If I break 1) and either 2 or 3, the gun doesn't even go off.

But if I break all 3, someone gets shot negligently.

 

[Picton]

Kind of the same. Accident chain analysis originated in the aviation world.

This is a good article describing it.

AOPA asf/publications/inst_reports2.cfm

I was reminded of this kind of thing when I was taking a class at Academi. It was a carbine class and we were moving as a group. I swept a guys lower legs as we went into a "room". Nobody noticed, but I wanted to own the mistake. So I approached him and apologized.

He was the real deal ex something or other brushing up on his skills before shipping out to guard our embassy in Yemin, unlike 2 of the guys in the class. Me, the IT guy and a dentist. The guy who I swept looked at me and asked. "Was your finger out of the trigger guard? (yes). Was the rifle on "safe" (yes).

Ok, then no big deal. Big boy rules. he said to me.

In this case the accident chain would be 1) pointing the rifle at his legs. 2) gun on safe 3) finger inside trigger guard.

If I break 2 of the 3 rules, nobody gets hurt. If I break 1) and either 2 or 3, the gun doesn't even go off.

But if I break all 3, someone gets shot negligently.

Indeed.

I was nothing special in the Army, but I did learn to shoot there. I'm always a little struck when civilian shooters get all uppity about being swept; other than at the range or when riding in a helicopter, I remember very little emphasis on muzzle discipline because it's accepted that you'll get swept. A lot. It's unavoidable when twelve or 36 guys are roaming through the woods, all with longarms or MGs. There's pretty much always a friendly muzzle pointed at you. You tend to ignore it because trigger discipline gets FAR more emphasis.

Very quickly, a soldier who's fond of resting his finger inside the TG gets noticed and corrected, forcibly. In every unit I was in, of any size, that kind of behavior evaporated quickly.

 

[dcmdon]

Thanks for your experience. I suspected that was the case.

 

[cams]

Before Colt stopped selling to civilians last year, they offered a semi-auto 6920 variant with an “M4 Carbine” roll mark for a few years:

MSR - Colt's Manufacturing LLC

[elementor-template id="2683"]

www.colt.com

That’s why we called them M “Forgeries”.

 

[308rifleman]

That’s why we called them M “Forgeries”.

Unless he obtained a Colt upper and an unfinished lower from some outside source. Drill one extra hole, use a few aftermarket M16 parts and an unregistered auto sear and it would be a genuine, highly illegal for civilians, M4.

 

[cams]

Unless he obtained a Colt upper and an unfinished lower from some outside source. Drill one extra hole, use a few aftermarket M16 parts and an unregistered auto sear and it would be a genuine, highly illegal for civilians, M4.

I don’t think this guy’s that smart. And I don’t think the press or the cops are smart enough to know the diff AND actually get it accurately in a story. Doesn’t matter anyway. Stupid guy. Dead friend.