David Doyle, Starks, Louisiana man allegedly shoots 14 year old girl in the back of the head as she played hide and seek on his yard after neighbor claiming seeing shadows.
Shoot first, maybe ask questions later… A Louisiana man is facing a series of charges for allegedly shooting a 14 year old girl in the back of the head as she played hide and seek with friends on his property – after telling police he saw ‘shadows.’
David Doyle, 58, upon his arrest was charged with aggravated battery, four counts of aggravated assault with a firearm, along with the illegal discharge of a firearm, cops said.
Police said the man fired gunshots as the children ran away from his property.
The incident occurred Sunday morning in Starks, a small town near the border with Texas, where police received reports of a shooting.
Detectives determined that ‘several juveniles were playing hide and seek in the area and were hiding on the neighbor’s property,’ the Calcasieu Parish Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.
Doyle told them ‘he observed shadows outside his home, at which time he went inside and retrieved his firearm,’ according to police.
‘He then advised detectives he went back outside and observed people running away from his property, at which time he began shooting at them and unknowingly hit the girl,’ the statement says.
Miraculously, the girl suffered non-life-threatening injuries and was rushed to a local hospital.
Her family told KPLC-TV that she is recovering well following the ordeal.
The shooting occurred on a dead-end road with only three residents — the suspect, the girl’s family and their relative, according to the news outlet.
Doyle remained in custody Tuesday at the Calcasieu Correctional Center, with his bond set at $300,000.
The man’s arrest is the latest in a recent spate of unsettling episodes of gun violence which saw victims shot at by gun holders in cases of home owners reaching for their gun without necessarily being fully aware of what was going on.
On April 13, 16-year-old Ralph Yarl was shot in the head by a homeowner in Kansas City, Missouri, after the teen rang his doorbell, mistaking the residence for the home where he was supposed to pick up his younger twin brothers.
The black honors student was critically injured but survived.
When the first impulse is to shoot
The white suspect, Andrew Lester, 84, was charged with first-degree assault and armed criminal action. He has pleaded not guilty.
Two days later, Kaylin Gillis, 20, was killed by a 65-year-old man in upstate Hebron, New York, after pulling up his driveway while looking for a friend’s house.
Kevin Morahan, 65, was subsequently arrested and charged with second-degree murder. He has pleaded not guilty.
Gillis was struck with one of two bullets fired by the suspect as the driver of the car tried to speed away.
Monahan’s attorney Kurt Mauser said his client did not know the gun was loaded when he fired at the group.
The car was coming up Monahan’s driveway ‘at a high rate of speed’ and creating ‘an atmosphere and a fear that there was menace going on,’ he said.
Similarly Texas cheerleader, Payton Washington, 20, was shot after mistakenly getting into wrong car at a parking lot. Cops arrested a local man while the elite cheerleader continues to deal with critical injuries she suffered.
A 9 months pregnant woman in Baton Rouge was also killed after teens fired into a vehicle she was driving in a case of mistaken identity after confusing her vehicle for one that had fired into theirs earlier that evening.
