Officials: Man Accidentally Shot Daughter After Mistaking Her For An Intruder

Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

A man in Virginia shot his 16-year-old daughter early Tuesday morning while she was attempting to sneak back into their house, according to Capt. Donnie Lang of the Frederick County Sheriff’s Office.

Television station WHAG reported on Tuesday that Lang said the incident occurred at about 3:30 a.m. after the father, who was getting ready for work, heard his home alarm go off.

“The homeowner, he has an alarm system inside what I call is ‘audible,’ in that it tells you what door is being opened,” Lang said. “When he went to go investigate what had set off the alarm, he heard some banging and rustling around in the garage. At that particular point, he obtained a firearm that he had there in the kitchen area.”

The father allegedly fired the gun because he sensed that someone was “coming at him” and, due to the poor visibility, wasn’t able to recognize his daughter, WHAG reported.

After realizing what had happened, the man rushed her to a local hospital, but WHAG reported that on the way there, the man crashed his car and emergency crews were called to take the girl to the hospital.

The daughter is expected to survive, and WHAG said it remains uncertain whether charges will be filed against the father. Neither the father nor the daughter were named in the report.

Lang said the Frederick County Sheriff’s Office will “confer with the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office [to] reference all the facts, and once it is completed, determine how they want us to go further,” according to WHAG.

Latest Livewire

Notable Replies

  1. I suppose he thought he was keeping his family safe.

  2. Avatar for dnl dnl says:

    Tough girl.

    Dad shoots her
    Then crashes with her in the car.

  3. Well, I’m sure the family feels much safer now that they’re absolutely, 100% certain that dad will shoot blindly at the shadows. You hate to be unsure about those sorts of things.

  4. Avatar for mcbain mcbain says:

    Is it that hard to ask “Who is that?” before shooting?

  5. “Lang said the Frederick County Sheriff’s Office will “confer with the
    Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office [to] reference all the facts, and once it is completed, determine how they want us to go further,” according to WHAG.”

    I’m sure they’ll be able to charge the daughter with something.

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

110 more replies

Participants

Avatar for rutrow Avatar for mmurdoch Avatar for meri Avatar for ncsteve Avatar for mattinpa Avatar for Rob_Monroe Avatar for commiedearest Avatar for mcbain Avatar for ralph_vonholst Avatar for borisjimbo Avatar for just2stressed Avatar for arc_of_the_universe Avatar for jimolson Avatar for jeffrey Avatar for suicide_arsonist Avatar for backlit Avatar for darrtown Avatar for occamsrazor2 Avatar for misterneutron Avatar for stevieD Avatar for footballbat Avatar for 62fender Avatar for Drea Avatar for jtx

Continue Discussion
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Deputy Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: