Law enforcement are bringing manslaughter charges against the shooter, who apparently didn't know the gun was loaded.
Let's assume the best. The three friends were sitting around discussing firearms while handling a gun. No alcohol or jesting that would cause carelessness. The shooter isn't pointing the gun at the head of the victim and it goes off. To me, that's the best scenario here, given the facts that have been reported.
The two witnesses panic and leave the apartment. They struggle all day with what has happened and finally agree to call the police. According to the news story they tell the police they should go and "check on Wilson (the victim)."
Four days later the shooter stands in front of the whole state of Maine on the most contentious moral issue of our time and offers testimony. Is it just me or is something terribly wrong here?
Even if the description above were accurate (and we already know it is worse because the District Attorney admitted the three men were participating in "something like" Russian Roulette) this story raises so many questions.
- What were the men doing when the shooter pulled the trigger? What is "something like" Russian roulette.
- Why did they wait all day to confess? If I were innocent in this matter I'd be either running for the hills or to the police to confess. The casual quality of both the shooting and the response of the law enforcement community is curious.
- What sort of thinking and emotions govern a man who can put a bullet in another man's head that kills him, then a short four days later testify in the most high-profile public hearing of 2009? I can't imagine what is going through this man's head.
- Did the organizers of the hearing know this happened? And if not, why not? The Attorney General appeared in the same testimony line as the shooter and his "lover." I would think they would be keeping this man from giving testimony, if they knew about the shooting. The homosexual community is pretty tight in Maine. I'd find it hard to believe they didn't know what was going on here.
If the shooter was a Christian man who testified at the hearing against homosexual marriage how would this propaganda opportunity be playing out publicly?