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Lawyer Gets Shot and Dies in Courtroom
Posted: Wed Nov 20, 2019 1:09 pm
by WildBill
A lawyer was shot when she dropped a shotgun that was being used as evidence in a house robbery case.
She died from her wounds.
Senior state advocate Addelaid Ferreira-Watt died after the freak shooting at the Ixopo Regional Court on
Monday when the shotgun dropped and blasted her in the left hip, News24 reported.
“It is alleged that the weapon was brought to court to be entered as evidence in a house robbery case when it
accidentally discharged in court,” a police spokesman told the website.
https://www.news.com.au/finance/work/at ... b7a7b8a4ef
Re: Lawyer Gets Shot and Dies in Courtroom
Posted: Wed Nov 20, 2019 1:14 pm
by Grayling813
South Africa is where it happened.
How many levels of fail is involved with a weapon never being cleared from the time its taken into chain of custody as evidence to being handed over to lawyers in a courtroom?
Re: Lawyer Gets Shot and Dies in Courtroom
Posted: Wed Nov 20, 2019 1:51 pm
by WildBill
Grayling813 wrote: Wed Nov 20, 2019 1:14 pm
South Africa is where it happened.
How many levels of fail is involved with a weapon never being cleared from the time its taken into chain of custody as evidence to being handed over to lawyers in a courtroom?
Re: Lawyer Gets Shot and Dies in Courtroom
Posted: Thu Nov 21, 2019 5:04 pm
by WildBill
LDP wrote: Thu Nov 21, 2019 3:32 pm
WildBill wrote: Wed Nov 20, 2019 1:09 pm
A lawyer was shot when she dropped a shotgun that was being used as evidence in a house robbery case.
She died from her wounds.
She might be nominated for the Darwin award for breaking gun safety rule #1.
Always - ALWAYS - assume a gun is loaded and check it before manipulating it.
But hey, not everyone in this world is smart. Those who aren't won't really be missed.
This is a perfect example of why everybody should be taught gun safety.
Re: Lawyer Gets Shot and Dies in Courtroom
Posted: Fri Nov 22, 2019 10:21 am
by ELB
I've been curious about the mechanics of how this happened. The linked article states "was dropped", but being in passive voice doesn't say she dropped it herself, and since almost none of the other articles state how it went off at all I wonder if the author of the linked article made an assumption.
The South African Sunday Times and the DispatchLive state that the shotgun "fell", and I would give more credence to a local news sources being closer to the scene. There are a couple more articles from South Africa, but they are in Afrikaans and I can't read them.
https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/south- ... -in-court/
https://www.dispatchlive.co.za/news/201 ... -in-court/
Very sad however it happened, and a huge hole in their safety and security competency.