Boy, 4, killed as he sat in church by bullet fired TWO miles away

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worl...iles-away.html

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Boy, 4, killed as he sat in church by bullet fired TWO miles away


By Paul Thompson
Last updated at 2:04 AM on 05th January 2010

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http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/...89_233x367.jpg Tragic: Four-year-old Marquel Peters was killed by a falling bullet fired two miles away from where he was attending a church service

A four-year-old boy was killed by a falling bullet fired two miles away from where he was attending a church service.
Marquel Peters was seated with his parents when the bullet, fired outside as part of New Year celebrations, came through the roof and struck him on the head.
The toddler collapsed at the feet of his parents who had no idea what had caused the gaping wound in his head.
It was only as doctors tried to save his life that they realised what had happened.

Ballistic experts believe the ammunition came from an AK-47 assault rifle fired more than two miles away from where the child was attending a service at the Church of God of Prophecy in Atlanta, Georgia.

Police said it was common for people to fire guns into the air as part of the New Year celebrations even though it is illegal.
Marquel's mother Nathalee told how her son died just 20 minutes into the New Year.

'I saw his Nintendo game fall on the floor, and I heard a sound and I heard him scream a little bit,' she said. 'I looked around and all I saw was blood coming from his head. It's so hard. He was my only child.'

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/...59_468x286.jpg Deep in prayer: The Church of God of Prophecy in Georgia, Atlanta, where the boy died. The bullet fired from an AK-47 assault rifle passed through the roof and struck him on the head

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/...34_237x271.jpg 'He was my only child': Marquel's mother, Nathalee Peters

Ms Peters wants the person who fired the gun to turn himself in.
'I want to say to the person responsible for this please come forward or whoever out there knows something about who did this to my son, please come forward and say something.
'We need justice,' she said.

Police said it was unlikely the gunman has any idea of the damage he has caused.

Ballistic experts are examining the bullet to see if it can be matched to a gun on their database.
In 2005, stray bullets hit two people at different locations in downtown Atlanta on New Year's Eve.

Aimee Buff from Hampton and her fiance were celebrating her 27th birthday at Underground Atlanta's Peach Drop when she was wounded.

A bullet hit her in the ear and became lodged about two inches from her spine.
And a few blocks away, Merritt Tidwell, a University of Georgia freshman from Douglasville, was struck below her right knee by a bullet that pierced the roof of the Georgia Dome, where she was watching the 2005 Peach Bowl, an American football game.


Italian boy, 6, hit by stray bullet fired in New Years celebration


A six-year-old Italian tourist narrowly escaped death after being hit in the chest by a falling bullet fired during New Year celebrations.
Little Andrea Fregonese, from Treviso, north of Venice, suffered a punctured lung in the incident outside a Miami restaurant on New Year's Day.
Shortly after midnight the boy complained of chest pains to his parents and when they lifted his shirt saw the bullet entry wound.
He underwent an emergency operation and is said to be in a stable condition.
The shooting came just hours after authorities in Miami asked people to refrain from firing guns in the air.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worl...#ixzz0bhqXn4Em

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Sad. RIP

Man that's rough.

Sad.. :-(


Tho I do have to bitch about how the reporter says one time that the bullet MAY have come from an AK-47 but then two sentences later says it DID come from one...

I'm starting to hate reporters more and more everyday ..

What a tradgedy. A child killed, in church no less, by some dumb ass with no respect for life. Not saying he did it on purpose, but to fire a rifle into the air, especially in an urban area is criminally stupid.

Be sure of your target and whats behind it.

Sad...

I agree with what GreenScout said. I've always been surprised that we don't hear about more of these careless shootings; especially in many of hte third world countries where they love to shoot many full-autos into the air.

I'm so sorry for this, but I can't help myself. I keep seeing this boys father (in the first story) saying "If I'm lying, may the Lord strike my boy down where he stands". That was horrible and insensitive; I know.

MODS: Please don't ban me for that!

I'm sorry to hear this story, and I feel for the family.

I'm curious as to the construction of the roof that was so easily penetrated by a bullet which then also had enough energy to kill the boy.

And I didn't appreciate how they called the AK an "assault rifle."

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Originally Posted by Batteriesnare

And I didn't appreciate how they called the AK an "assault rifle."

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It's a British newspaper, and not one renowned for restraint and accuracy. If you value your blood pressure, don't click the link and read some of the comments.

I was under the impression that if you fire a gun straight up into the air, the bullet will tumble on the way down at a much slower rate than it went into the air, and most likely, not be lethal. In order to kill someone from that far away, you'd have to shoot under like a 60* angle or something right?

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Originally Posted by Batteriesnare

And I didn't appreciate how they called the AK an "assault rifle."

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I caught this too and just let it go. The Brady bunch has done such a great job getting that phrase into our vocabulary - esp. for the media, that it's even caught on overseas. It's a mindset that we, who know better, can slowly work to change - one person at a time.

Man what a sad story. How would we fill if that was one of our kids? My prayer go out to that family

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Originally Posted by Stuart

I was under the impression that if you fire a gun straight up into the air, the bullet will tumble on the way down at a much slower rate than it went into the air, and most likely, not be lethal. In order to kill someone from that far away, you'd have to shoot under like a 60* angle or something right?

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Yeah, if the bullet is fired straight up into the air, it will expend it's energy and return to earth only by gravity. Fire that same bullet at much of an angle, it is likely to become lethal.

I would bet money the dumbass who was shooting his rifle wasn't thinking about such things, and if he was, he didn't care.

Another instance of some syphilitic moron with no regard for anyone but themselves causing pain for someone else, not to mention stealing a 4 year old's future. And, in the process, furthering the Brady bunch's BS.

Heart wrenching!

My prayers for the family!

Very sad. I'm pretty curious as to how they know the bullet was fired two miles away though?

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Originally Posted by foxtrot

Actually, it will maintain its axis from the barrel (all bullets do) even through the apex and continue down to the ground base first.

When fired at a steep angle, it will maintain its axis from the barrel during the entire flight (all bullets, and in fact, any spin stabilized projectile.. including some artillery) meaning when fired at extreme angles the bullet is no longer penetrating anything along its axis. As in, if you fire a round with 30 degrees elevation, whatever it impacts, the bullet will still be pointing the same direction of the barrel (30 degrees above horizon) when it does.

A researcher back in the day clocked a 30-06 round as gaining about 12,000 feet in elevation before reaching apex, and coming down base first, denting wood reasonably well but I wouldn't go so far as to say it had penetration.

For it to be two miles away, you can be VERY certain it was fired at a pretty steep angle.. and even then I have my doubts. At 3000 feet it would have already dropped to less than 950 feet per second forward velocity (very lethal). But.. two miles is over 7500 feet beyond that. Can a 7.62x39 go two miles? You betcha. Can it go two miles, rip through a ceiling and cause a catastrophic wound as described... I REALLY doubt it. Sure, any bullet at any range can be lethal just like a pellet with 4 foot pounds of energy has killed people before, but it doesn't have the energy to make a mess of it.

I have to wonder if their ballistics expert is an on scene Sarah Brady. "Yup, see this hole? That means its an ASSAULT RIFLE, probably an AK-47 based on the terrorism damage."

Proof in point, if they don't know who the hell fired the round, or where, then how the hell was it an AK-47? Even if they know it is a 7.62x39 bullet... that does not, in fact, conclude it was an AK.

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Ok. Thanks for setting me straight on the ballistics.

Yeah, I agree this unfortunate incident will be used as a reason to further malign so called assault rifles....

man some of the comments on that article reflect an unbelievable level of stupidity.

Very sad for this family. I feel for them.
I too wonder how they 'know' the bullet came from 2 miles away. And how do they 'know' it came from an AK. My SKS shoots 7.62x39 as well. I sense a lot of anti-gun bias in this.

I just assumed that they found someone who said they were shooting their AK, I haven't actually read the article yet. From what it sounds like, the reporter is full of *Assault Shit.



*Assault Shit is worse than regular shit.

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Originally Posted by Stuart

*Assault Shit is worse than regular shit.

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... and often comes in a black color varity. There are even explosive rounds that Assualt sh!t can fire, people in the know call these incendiary rounds dihaerrea.

I'm still trying to figure out how they concluded it was from 2 miles away...

And, was "Shot from an AK" written on it? Let's see AK,SKS,Mini-30 and the CZ whatever the number is.. Oh yeah,, AR also.. To my knowledge, all fire the 7.62X39MM..

Got to be something else to the story..

I have to agree withfoxtrot. The numbers just don't add up. I seriously doubt that it would have had enough retained energy to make it through the roof much less do that much damage to the boy..

Not that I could tell that much from the picture,, But having been in on a few Chruch constructions over the years, My edjudicated guess, if built in the last 15-20 years, would be,1-2" thick beaded board as the finished ceiling. Air gap, insulation, (it's Atlanta, want to keep the AC in.) 3/4" plywood, roofing paper and shingles..

So, you see,, having a hard time buying it myself..

You can't use riflles in the air. To go up into the atmosphere, through a roof and into his head is alot. Probably why he let out a little noise, slow vilocity. Stupid people. Just use shotguns!

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Originally Posted by Marlin

I'm still trying to figure out how they concluded it was from 2 miles away...

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Maybe gunfire was heard/reported in a certain area a couple of miles away from the church, and so they put two and two together.

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Originally Posted by jake

Maybe gunfire was heard/reported in a certain area a couple of miles away from the church, and so they put two and two together.

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I could go with that, Had that been mentioned.. It wasn't though...

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Originally Posted by iamhunter

man some of the comments on that article reflect an unbelievable level of stupidity.

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To be fair the comments reflect a cultural difference, that's all. I've had this discussion with Americans before when they point to Britain as a country that was disarmed by its government. Gun ownership of the types that were legislated against after Dunblane was very low: less than 1% of the population were affected.

I've always had in interest in guns, I love owning them and shooting them now I live here and I intend to own more, but I think if I hadn't moved to this country I would never have fired a gun, let alone owned one, simply because it's not really a popular pastime in the UK. It's not a case of right or wrong, it's just a difference.

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Originally Posted by jake

To be fair the comments reflect a cultural difference, that's all. I've had this discussion with Americans before when they point to Britain as a country that was disarmed by its government. Gun ownership of the types that were legislated against after Dunblane was very low: less than 1% of the population were affected.

I've always had in interest in guns, I love owning them and shooting them now I live here and I intend to own more, but I think if I hadn't moved to this country I would never have fired a gun, let alone owned one, simply because it's not really a popular pastime in the UK. It's not a case of right or wrong, it's just a difference.

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I goes beyond a "cultural difference" when they look at American's right to own guns as stupid, unnecessary, or as one of the commentor's stated "something that needs to be revised".

If you don't like guns, that's fine. But keep preferences and your laws yourself and your country.

Don't make assertions about my laws and my country.

It's not like our right to bear arms is a gross human rights violation or something.

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Originally Posted by Stuart

It's not like our right to bear arms is a gross human rights violation or something.

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yeah its not like we make it culturally acceptable to kill females that are born in our country or pay women to abort female fetuses. (china and india)

It is a right that you can exercise if you choose to. And it is an American right, fuck them, we beat their ass and we could obviously do it again since they don't want to be armed.[LOL]

as for the OP, I feel very sorry for the loss of the child however I have to question the legitimacy of the story.

2 miles away makes no sense for a small caliber projectile that goes through a roof. there isn't enough mass in a ~130 grain bullet to go through a roof, strike a child and kill him at that distance.
Maybe it is one of those one in a quadtrillionzillion shots (yes that is more than the US deficit, but just barely).

but i don't see how a bullet could be shot, lose basically all its energy, go THROUGH a roof and then still have enough energy and force to cause bleeding let alone death.

All the propaganda they put in the story automatically blaming an AK...I was surprised they couldn't tell it was full automatic while they were at it.

Has anyone researched to see if this was an actual death or not?

I'm skeptical as well. The story is kind of spotty, but the sound of the bullet coming through the roof would alert everyone in the church. The way the story is written is like no one even noticed anything until the little boy fell down.

It's solved... Aparently a ninja was doing some space shuttle door gunning, while looking for his targets he failed to understand what was behind his target-church... thus the round was fired towards earth, from orbit with a specially designed nose to increase speed and penetration after terminal velocity was reached... When contacted for comment, the ninja blamed the miss on global warming.

In all seriousness, this is a sad story. I feel sad for the loss of life but also joyous that he had a life to live. I feel that when it's your time to go, you go. Whether it be 4 years old or 400 years old. What I can't reconcile is the practice of abortion and how that plays into my religous beliefs about terminating life, etc... No need to start talking about that... just my stream of consiciouness.

Never fire a weapon into the air, no need.

If you do a quick google you will find very little local info on this story. I work in Atlanta and never heard a thing about it except for this post.


after some googling here is more:

http://current.com/tags/89634057_marquel-peters/


these guys say the bullet was fired 3 miles away[Bang]

Most other links are all UK oriented, some Australian.


And if you look at a link of a picture of the inside of the church...it seems there is some pretty damn good material for a roof considering the steel re-enforcement beams going across. it would damn dear take a direct shot straight from the roof down to penetrate IMO.

maybe the bullet came in through a window or open door, but i highly question the roof if the 2 mile story sticks.

Oh, here are the bullets they recovered.

http://whatthecrap.files.wordpress.c...lt-512x369.jpg

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Originally Posted by Stuart

Oh, here are the bullets they recovered.

http://whatthecrap.files.wordpress.c...lt-512x369.jpg

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going off what information is out there now I wouldn't doubt it.

Well yeah,, after 3 miles, I could see a stubby 123gr bullet morphing into a 155mm shell capable of doing the damage..

You know, gravitational pull and such...

I'd like to see a photo of the hole in the roof, myself....

Here you go Marlin.

http://a4.vox.com/6a00d09e4616dfbe2b...7aa4860c-500pi

Looks more like the Mother of all sink holes....

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Originally Posted by iamhunter

I goes beyond a "cultural difference" when they look at American's right to own guns as stupid, unnecessary, or as one of the commentor's stated "something that needs to be revised".

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What you've said actually comes right down to a cultural difference completely. There is no Constitution or Bill of Rights in the UK, so they don't understand that we have the RIGHT to own guns. They just think it's something we choose to do because we can.

But I have no wish to argue with you. Eventually the residual part of me that feels the need to stick up for even the most ignorant Brits will wither and die :D

Bottom line, the reason I posted that story is because it DOES NOT make sense. Again RIP to the boy and prayers for the family...

Nevertheless, how the story concluded the AK47 (ok maybe it means 7.62) from 3 miles away through the church roof etc. Local and national news do not pick this up btw.. it's mostly released by foreign journals.