Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 13, 1993 TAG: 9306140178
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MIKE HUDSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"It was a total accident," a 13-year-old girl who saw the accident said. "To everyone's knowledge, there were no bullets in the gun."
Vinton police said William Hagy, 18, of Bedford, was playing with the gun in front of some friends at a picnic shelter beside the Vinton Pool.
The magazine of the .25-caliber automatic had been taken out, police said. But unknown to Hagy, they said, one bullet remained in the chamber.
Police said Hagy put the gun to his head and pulled the trigger. The gun went off. Hagy was pronounced dead at Roanoke Memorial Hospital at 11:50 p.m. Friday.
The three witnesses said they wanted to talk about what happened to set the record straight. They said they were upset because one television station had reported that Hagy's death was the result of a "dangerous game of Russian roulette."
Russian roulette is not possible with an automatic pistol. The game involves intentionally placing a bullet in a revolver and spinning the cylinder before aiming it and shooting at one's head.
"There was no Russian roulette," said the 13-year-old, who asked that her name not be used.
Larry Bryant, 15, and Mike Sutliffe, 18, who also saw the shooting, agreed.
"It wasn't intentional what he did," Sutliffe said. "It was just stupid, playing with the gun."
The three teen-agers gave this account of what happened:
Just before 6 p.m., a half-dozen teen-agers, boys and girls, were hanging out and talking at the picnic shelter.
An older guy, 20, was showing off his pistol and offering to sell it.
While the others were turned away and talking, the guy with the gun fired a shot into the woods away from the shelter.
Then he took the magazine out of the pistol and laid the gun down.
After Hagy came from the pool to join the group, they asked if he had heard the gunshot. He said he hadn't.
Hagy took the gun and handled it for a few minutes. He wasn't waving it around. At one point he aimed it at the ground.
Bryant told him to be careful: "Billy, don't point that at nobody."
The gun's owner assured Hagy it was empty because he had taken the magazine out. The 13-year-old told 18-year-old William Hagy - joking that he was going to kill himself - put the gun to his head and pulled the trigger. Hagy she had seen him do that.
Then Hagy - joking that he was going to kill himself - put the gun to his head and pulled the trigger.
Vinton police said earlier Saturday that they were still investigating the shooting, but they believed it had been an accident. Department spokesmen could not be reached Saturday night to confirm the earlier shot or other details of the witnesses' account.
Mary Beth Layman, special events coordinator for the town of Vinton, said six of the teen-agers who were at the shooting scene have been suspended from the pool until town officials can see the police report.
Sutliffe, Bryant and the girl said they believe the suspension unfairly suggests they were to blame for what happened.
Bryant and Sutliffe are angry at the gun's owner, but they both believe that he, like Hagy, had no idea there was still a bullet in the chamber. Hagy and the guy didn't get along well, they said, but they don't think he'd want to do anything to harm Hagy.
Hagy had owned a similar gun a few years ago, Sutliffe said, so he knew how to handle it.
"That wasn't like Billy to make a mistake like that," Sutliffe said. "It was just one of those things that shouldn't have happened. They need to do something where you can't get no guns, period. There ain't no use for one."
Keywords:
FATALITY
by CNB