The saddest news in Charlottesville this week is the news that 10-year-old Maggie Hollifield was shot and killed in her home by a teenager. The medical examiner has now concluded that the shooting was accidental.
The local TV station asked me to comment on whether the situation would lead to court proceedings. The facts are not entirely public, though we can infer that the shooter was a family member (perhaps Maggie’s brother). I have also heard it said that the gun accidentally discharged while it was being cleaned. There are four possibilities to think about:
- Civil proceedings — suing someone for money damages. This wouldn’t happen, for a lot of reasons. First, who would you sue? Parents aren’t responsible for the negligence of their children, and even if they were, the beneficiaries of a wrongful death action would be the siblings and the parents. They wouldn’t be suing themselves.
- Child protective services investigation — Any time there is an injury (much less a death) to a child, it is possible that Child Protective Services (CPS) could investigate to see if there was some kind of abuse or neglect. Here, the allegation would no doubt be made that the parents were negligent in allowing a teenager to come into possession of a loaded gun. This could quite possibly lead to civil abuse and neglect charges being filed against the parents. More on that later.
- Criminal charges against the shooter — Consistent with the Medical Examiner’s finding that this was an accident, the Commonwealth’s Attorney could bring charges against the teenager for involuntary manslaughter or for reckless handling of a firearm. It would depend entirely on the exact facts here — particularly on the question of a reckless discharge. If the teenager pointed the gun at Maggie in horsing around, and it went off, that could be a reckless discharge, and it might support a manslaughter charge, but if the evidence was in fact that the teenager didn’t know that the gun was loaded and that it discharged entirely by accident, that would seem to be purely negligence and not recklessness. If it is purely negligence, it could still be the basis for a manslaughter charge, but at some level a prosecutor needs to ask him or herself what good would be served by bringing such a charge. What would be accomplished by subjecting this family to more anguish?
- Criminal charges for child abuse and neglect. There have been a few such charges brought in Virginia in recent years. Just sampling the newspapers whose archives are online, we get this very recent case from Henrico County — a 10-year-old found a gun and shot a 4-year-old. That case has not yet gone to trial, but the key question there is whether it is felony child endangerment to store a firearm in such a way that a 10-year-old could find it and play with it. There have been other cases in the Richmond area where children playing with loaded guns have caused injury (or even killed someone) and the parent has been charged with felony child endangerment or neglect.
The cases alleging child endangerment or neglect are VERY fact-specific. From what I know of this case so far, I doubt that a case for criminal charges will be brought. But then, I don’t claim to know anything other than what I read in the paper.
Ultimately, the question on the criminal side is going to be whether there is a good reason to bring the case.
