Tree climber ...shot

Kevin

Kevin

Location
Ontario, Canada
Gardena shooting suspect charged

Teen who allegedly fired at a man suspended from a tree faces count of attempted first-degree murder.
By Larry Altman
Daily Breeze

A 19-year-old Gardena man was charged Tuesday with attempted first-degree murder in the shooting of a tree trimmer, who unwittingly became human prey as he dangled from a branch.

Police said Miguel Angel Gonzalez could face the rest of his life in prison for wounding the pruner as he worked Friday in the 12900 block of Berendo Avenue.

Police said Gonzalez had no motive for aiming and firing at the trimmer, other than finding a human target.

"It may have started out as shooting birds because there was one dead bird found nearby," Gardena police Lt. Chuck Balo said. "Somehow it turned from that into shooting people."

Gonzalez's attorney, Richard Trejo, called the shooting a "tragic accident."

"He was doing a dumb, stupid thing shooting at birds and he unfortunately struck the tree trimmer. It was totally unintentional," Trejo said. "Fortunately, the worker wasn't seriously injured. Still, he suffered an injury. Mr. Gonzalez is remorseful of that and really feels bad about that."

The 42-year-old victim, who is recovering from his wound, was suspended from a rope in a harness, cutting branches with a chain saw, when he and a partner on the ground heard popping noises. The victim felt a stinging pain in his left knee, became dizzy, climbed down and realized he had been shot, Balo said.

A bullet also hit his jacket, but did not penetrate it.

Police traced the gunfire and popping noises to Gonzalez's home, about 200 feet away.

Balo said Gonzalez and a female juvenile were shooting guns in his back yard. Police found 10 to 12 shell casings, and a .22-caliber rifle and a .30-30-caliber rifle taken in burglaries at a neighbor's home.

The .22-caliber rifle was identified as the weapon used in the shooting, police said.

Balo said the tree trimmer could have been seriously injured or killed by the bullets, or by the chain saw he was using at the time.

Police believe the fact that the worker was hit with two bullets indicated he was not a victim of stray projectiles.

Prosecutors filed one count of attempted murder with the special allegation of intentionally discharging a firearm to cause great bodily injury, two counts of grand theft of a firearm, and two counts of residential burglary.

Gonzalez pleaded not guilty to the charges at his arraignment Tuesday in Torrance Supervisor Court. Judge Thomas Sokolov ordered Gonzalez held in county jail on $1 million bail and to return to court Feb. 23.

Deputy District Attorney Brad McCartt said Gonzalez faces a maximum of life in prison, along with a 25 years to life sentence, if convicted.

Trejo said prosecutors over-charged his client with an attempted murder count.

"I don't think the facts support it," Trejo said.

The female teenager, who also was arrested, will be prosecuted in Juvenile Court.


http://www.dailybreeze.com/news/articles/2...html?page=2&c=y
 
WTF? How do you prevent THAT from happening? The climber is lucky the kid shot him with the 22 and not the high power. I hope he makes a speedy recovery and his nerves aren't wrecked for climbing
 
Geez, of all the potential pitfalls you run thru your head preparing for a climb, getting shot would be the last of your worries. You would think anyway.
 
[ QUOTE ]
I like the hard stance the prosecutors are holding. Hope they can carry it through.

[/ QUOTE ]

Same here.
 
wow, what a punk.

Guns and trees, reminded me of something.

I was trimming some trees at residence maybe 5 years ago.

I heard this woman let out the most chilling scream. It immediately gave me goose bumps. She came running out of a nearby house and dropped to her knees screaming. My crew froze. I dropped to the ground right away, unclipped and ran across the road to her as another neighbor did also. She mentioned something about her husband is dead, shot himself. We carried her away farther from the house and to a neighbors house.

They were seperated. He was a known wife beater. She had set up an appointment to come over that morning to get some more of her things. She walked in the house when he didn't answer, to find him dead on the floor with blood pooled around him. Luckily he didn't kill her, or even do it in front of her. But he still did it for her to find, one more abusive act.

Neighbors said he used to paise back and forth in has back yard at 3am in the dark.

I was amazed at what a true blood curtling scream can make you feel like, a very bad sound. I could recall that sound in my head for a few weeks.
 
It is amazing how somethings like that can stay with you for a long time. I had a 15 year old boy slit his wrist at the reserve i work at in october, about 5 days before the wood in eye incident. He did not survive. And I was the one who had found him. To this day i sometimes have a hard time sleeping because of it.

None the less i hope they nail this punk for what he did.
 
I was working in Germantown ( section of Phila. ) I was "Whitey in a bucket truck" I was working for a Church otherwise I wasn't in that part of the city. These kids , started lighting my truck up with BB guns. At the time I wasn't sure what the hell it was , but I saw a dozen eye balls in a window. I folded up. Instead of calling the cops , I went into the church got the Pastor and let him go handle the crack babies. Now whenever I'm in a large tree in the city , I always think about getting shot, feel like a target . The city, a beautiful place but the sun goes down.
 
Whoa. I'm with Raven, WTF? Get teh little jerky head working, on the ground, hauling wood and making like a useful human. I hate to imagine this scenario with my crew; I'm not sure that kid and his girlie friend would make it to court......YIKES!
 
Damn reminds me of bein up a big cottonweed in the "projects" I could see the cops flyin around the neighborhood and gunshots ring'in out scary neighborhood. When I was sell'in the job they just wanted some ratty lindens raised higher then their young years really could stand. consulted that some mulch would be a cheap way to boost their health. Heres what the manager said, raise em high "they" hide their guns up in the branchs - no mulch they'd hide their guns in the mulch -- Trees always seem to lose.
 
Unfortunately due to my summer tree work schedule and weird winter snowplowing hours, I don't get to "dabble in the Buzz" enough.

Anyway, while working for ArborCare in Calgary back in 1996 my crew was busy removing some big old Northwest poplars. The trees were on the ground and I was bucking up the wood when I thought I heard several high-pitched sounds that I couldn't recognize. The next thing, a bunch of cop cars peel into the lot across the road and police enter the building. (Oddly enough, the police station was adjacent to where we were working and it seemed strange that they would waste their time driving over there). A guy had flipped out and gone to his estranged wife's work where he shot her dead and either killed or seriously wounded at least one other person. I think the cops found him dead later in the day somewhere in southeast Calgary from a self-inflicted gunshot wound! Sad state of affairs.

As an arborist we get to see some pretty crazy stuff, but that was definitely a sketchy situation. Not to mention getting shot while in a tree...I hope that kid gets his just dues and that the arborist heals up and can still get out there and mentally focus on tree work.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

New threads New posts

Back
Top Bottom