By Tom Blakey

Transcript Staff Writer

Prosecutors filed second-degree manslaughter charges Friday against two Noble police officers in an accidental shooting Aug. 3 that claimed the life of 5-year-old Austin Haley of Noble.

Brad Rogers, 34, and Shawn Richardson, 29, are expected to turn themselves in to authorities next week, said Cleveland County District Attorney Greg Mashburn.

Rogers, who had been on the Noble police force about one month, reportedly twice fired a .357 semi-automatic handgun in a residential area, attempting to shoot a snake in a birdhouse. One of the two shots struck Austin Haley in the head while he was fishing at a nearby pond with family members.

Sgt. Richardson was the supervising officer at the scene, Mashburn said.

“I take no pleasure in the decision. Although this event was accidental, with reasonable care and caution the death of a child could have been avoided,” he said.

Mashburn said he “thoroughly reviewed” OSBI reports and “personally walked” the scene of the shooting.

The second-degree manslaughter is based upon “culpable negligence,” Mashburn said.

“Culpable negligence is defined as the omission to do something a reasonably careful person would do. Based on my review of the OSBI report and my viewing of the scene, I concluded these officers failed to do something that a reasonably careful person would do by firing a weapon at a non-poisonous snake that was stuck in a birdhouse without knowing what lay behind their location,” he said.

Mashburn said he looked at other cases involving accidental deaths, and determined there “must be some level of accountability for the officers involved.”

Austin’s parents and grandparents attended Mashburn’s afternoon press conference at the Cleveland County Office Building.

“Their decision to shoot the gun was hasty, I believe,” said the boy’s father, Jack Haley. Haley said he would like to see Rogers and Richardson permanently removed from the force.

Austin’s grandfather, Jack Tracy, said he was “pleased” with Mashburn’s decision.

“We’re sad over the situation — it’s hard for everyone involved. What the officers did was extremely negligent. It showed utter disregard for the safety of citizens and the surrounding community.”

Jack Tracy and his grandson were standing next to each other on a fishing dock at a pond in a heavily wooded area, when the officers arrived at a nearby residence to investigate a report of a snake hanging from a birdhouse.

According to court documents, “Tracy heard a gunshot from somewhere behind him and he saw a splash in the water about three or four feet in front of him. He yelled for whomever was shooting to stop shooting. A few seconds later he heard another gunshot and his grandson Austin Haley fell on the boat dock with blood spurting out of his forehead.”

Tracy put his grandson in an ATV and drove to where Austin’s father was, at the north end of the property, the report states.

The two officers first attempted to remove the large black snake from the birdhouse using “a yard implement handle and a police asp baton,” but were unsuccessful. The snake was hanging, headfirst, approximately one foot and 10 inches out of the birdhouse entrance, hissing at the officers, the OSBI report states.

Richardson told the other officers, “I guess we’ll have to shoot it.” The officers then asked a neighbor if there was anything in the area behind and east of the residences, and were told it “was all field and there was nothing in the heavily wooded area.”

Richardson then told Rogers to kneel down so he could shoot at the snake. An eyewitness said she heard the officers “discuss shooting toward a large tree, which she understood to mean they wanted to use the tree to stop the bullets.”

Within a few seconds after the second shot was fired, the officers said they heard someone screaming from the wooded area southeast of the back yard. They ran to the back of the residence, jumped over a fence and came upon the ATV, with Austin lying in the back and Jack Haley screaming that his son had been shot, according to court documents.

Austin was taken to Norman Regional Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Contacted Friday, Noble City Manager Bob Wade said the employment status of the officers would be decided “in the near future,” after an internal inquiry of the shooting death is completed.

Tom Blakey

366-3540

tblakey@normantranscript.com