ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, May 21, 1996 TAG: 9605210110
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MIKE HUDSON STAFF WRITER
Lexington prosecutors won't press charges in the accidental shooting death of a 10-year-old boy at Virginia Military Institute's rifle range.
Commonwealth's Attorney Gordon Saunders said Monday there was no evidence that VMI's shooting coach - who accidentally shot the boy April 27 - had acted with a reckless disregard for the lives of others.
The shooting happened after the coach, Sgt. Jim Thorp, had shown Nancy Pickral and her son, John, a semiautomatic handgun Thorp had bought recently at a gun show.
Thorp checked to see if the .380 pistol was loaded by pulling the slide back over the barrel to see if there as a live round in the gun's chamber, Saunders said. That left the gun's hammer in the cocked position, Saunders said, so Thorp used his right hand to pull the trigger to release the spring tension on the hammer.
Thorp didn't own any .380 ammunition and thought the weapon's clip was empty, Saunders said. It wasn't, and when Thorp had pulled the slide back to check the chamber, he unwittingly had loaded a live round into the chamber.
The gun fired as he pulled the trigger, and the bullet went through the palm of his left hand and came out the other side near his wrist. Then it hit John Pickral in the chest and cut through a major artery.
Saunders decided not to file charges after reading an investigation report written by VMI Post Police with help from state police and other agencies.
He said John Pickral's parents agreed with his decision not to seek charges.
The prosecutor said Thorp "admitted ... he had failed to eject and check the magazine [clip] prior to pulling the trigger to de-cock the handgun."
The gun had been stored in a locked cabinet at the rifle range office, and Saunders said investigators were unable to determine who had last handled it - and perhaps loaded it - before Thorp took it out of the cabinet. The fingerprints on the clip and bullets were smudged, he said.
Early that Saturday afternoon, John Pickral's mother had brought her son to the VMI rifle range to meet with other 4-H Club members and then travel to a park to practice for a hunter-safety competition. Thorp, who was in his office at the rifle range, showed Pickral, her son and another 4-H member the .380 and another gun.
After checking to make sure the guns' chambers were unloaded, he handed the pistols to them. Then he took the pistols back and pulled the trigger on the Llama .380 to uncock it.
The .380 "did not have a de-cocking mechanism," Saunders said, "and the trigger needed to be pulled at the same time as the handle was squeezed in order to release the cocked hammer."
Saunders said there were two ways to uncock the hammer: by pulling the trigger with one hand and easing the hammer down with other, or by pulling the trigger and using the other hand to "control the muzzle."
The prosector said controlling the muzzle - as Thorp did - is supposed to prevent it from being pointed directly at anyone and reduce the chances a bullet will ricochet off the floor or a wall.
Thorp, the rifle coach at VMI since 1980, for years has been a volunteer instructor for children around Rockbridge County on firearms safety. He is still on medical leave from the institute.
After the shooting, Pickral's parents visited Thorp in the hospital, a VMI spokesman said.
Doug Chase, an area recreation director, told Lexington's News-Gazette that John Pickral was a superb athlete who was "passionately involved" in shooting sports. "He grabbed every second he had and squeezed every ounce of joy and participation he could in every minute he had."
If you looked up the word "boy" in the dictionary, Chase said, "you kind of expected to see John's picture."
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