Boy killed in hunting accident

*Taken from Kare 11 website

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A 14-year-old boy from Buffalo died in a hunting accident in Aitkin County, authorities said Sunday.

Brandon Mitchell Lanie was hunting with a group north of Mille Lacs Lake. It was around sunset Saturday night when he was shot in the head by another hunter, the sheriff’s office said. He died at the scene.

Sheriff Scott Turner said it’s believed Lanie was mistaken for a deer. Officials say Lanie was wearing a blaze orange jacket, blaze orange pants and a camouflage hat.

Sunset in the area on Saturday would have been about 4:39 p.m. with twilight lasting until about 5:12 p.m., according to a U.S. Naval Observatory calculator.

A 45-year-old Maplewood man was arrested at the scene and was being held on suspicion of second-degree manslaughter. He was expected to be arraigned in Aitkin County District Court on Monday.

Brandon’s family describes him as kind-hearted, a boy who loved the outdoors. He was a freshman at Buffalo High School.

“He loved to hunt and fish. He could fish all day long. He wanted to hunt whenever he could – before school, after school, weekends,” says Brandon’s mother Debbie Hulett. “It’s been the hardest day of my life. I lost my best friend.”

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Regards go out to the family.

REMEMBER, be safe out there in the woods. Accidents like these should NEVER occur.

Sad deal indeed. If anyone knows this family and if they need help with expences please direct them here http://www.hhh-usa.org This org helps hunters in time like this..

Thoughts and prayers go out to the family….

Its especially sad when one is lost before they have had a chance to live.

Know your target and beyond.

This is very sad indeed. My heart goes out to the family.

I’m not trying to stir things at all here, but aren’t any hats worn supposed to be at least 50% blaze as well?

The media reports might have this wrong I believe, as I was the first to be on the scene along with my neighbor. We got the “First Responder” call on the radio in my living room at 5:01pm. We were 3 minutes away.

The boys hat was not on when we found him but I believe/recall the hat was “camo” orange. Not just plain camo. I just don’t recall in all the stressful time on the scene, a plain camo hat lying there. I could have missed it… But who cares! No excuses! NONE!

Very sad–for ALL parties. That’s all I will say on this.

Steve Fellegy
218-678-3103

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This is very sad indeed. My heart goes out to the family.

I’m not trying to stir things at all here, but aren’t any hats worn supposed to be at least 50% blaze as well?

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Im not sure how the regs read this year…

But if your wearing an orange jacket, it shouldnt make a difference if your wearing a brown hat with antlers on it! Deer dont walk on 2 legs. There is no excuse for shooting anything but a deer when your deer hunting. If you cant identify the entire target, you dont shoot.

There is no punishment suitable for this guy who shot the kid… short of the death sentence.

It’s one thing to have a hunting accident. They happen. But to mistake a human for a deer is not an accident it’s carlessness. I would require the shooter to answer just one question. That is, “What part of the deer were you aiming at?”

I agree Dave, I can never understand how you mistake a hunter in orange with a brown deer.

I too have a hard time understanding this type of mistake. Its a simple concept; Know what your shooting at! This guy should be punished to the fullest extent to hopefully send a message To other slob hunters

I agree. How can you possibly mistake a human for a deer?

Steve,

Just wanted to say thanks for being a first responder up there. Tuff job. Can’t imagine what that scene must have looked like. Not going to be easy shaking those images from your head.

Take Care.

-J.

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I agree. How can you possibly mistake a human for a deer?

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Probably the classic case of “Buck Fever”. Guy wanted to see a deer so bad……he did. In this guys head I’m sure he thought he saw a buck. Just crazy….

We know nothing about this hunter. I do not condone what he did by any stretch. But this ordeal is going to affect two families greatly. One lost a son. The other may have lost a father, brother or whatever. The minute he pulled that trigger, his life and his family’s life was changed forever. Something to think about for all of us out there. We do not know if he was a “Slob” hunter, or if he just showed a moment of extremely horrible judgement. I feel for both families. Can you imagine calling your wife and telling her you just killed someone? I preach safety, safety, safety with all my kids, and often times have to remind myself of the little things. Binocs are for looking, scopes are for shooting. There will be much more of this to come out. Like I said, I feel for both families in this tragedy. One thing for sure is that given the opportunity, I am sure he would pull that bullet back. But you cannot. That is why you need to know your target and beyond.
Prayers sent to both families.
Tuck

JJ, I wonder how many accidents like this fall on the last weekend of the season? Hunters looking to fill the tag, frustrated that they have not scored yet.
Would they maybe take a chance they wouldn’t otherwise? I shudder at the thought…

buck fever… well, its a good thing the deer are wearing blaze orange now so we wont miss them coming(literally).

Let’s wait and see what the story is. What if the kid was using a blowdown for concealment (No blaze orange visible.) and his brown hair was sticking above it? Wrong in any situation to shoot based on that scenario! But like I said, there may be a lot more to come out of this.

All I am saying is let’s hear the whole story before we play judge, jury and executioner here. This tragedy could and will be a very visible reflection on hunters in this and other States. Let’s not pour gas on this fire for the Anti’s. I think it would be smarter for all of us to send prayers for both families, and see if we can all learn something from this terrible deal.
My $.02

That is very sad that a boy this age had to die or anyone in that case. I know some of you probably rifle hunt. I Don’t you beleive that if the person was using a shotgun this would have happened,he would have had to notice it wasn’t a deer? I don’t hunt up north so I’m not sure what you guys go through, but in my experience a shot gun is plenty to deer hunt with. If a deer is more than a hundred yards away from you then it means that deer just wasn’t the one for you. I personaly have shot 100% of my deer within 50 yards of my stands so why do guys need to use a rifle? These are just my thoughts and not out there for anyone to critisize. My prayers are with his family.

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buck fever… well, its a good thing the deer are wearing blaze orange now so we wont miss them coming(literally).

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Dave,

All I’m saying is I hope they still teach this stuff in hunter/safety training. The human mind has a tendency to see what it wants too. That’s why people see the Virgin Mary in burnt toast!

-J.

Denver, as you know there are many ways to deer hunt. I do both, rifle and shotgun hunt. Some of my stands overlook long field or swamp edges easily within range of my .270. A shot that I practice many times at ranges. I am confident making a 200 yard shot with my rifle. I have other areas (Such as this year) where my shooting area is much more restricted. So I used my 12G with a laser dot scope. Some people drive deer. There are many ways to do it, but the competence level may not be there for the “Next guy.” We don’t know him, and we don’t know if he practices like “We” do. I had to get out of my stand this year to inform 3 hunters on land next to ours that I had kids spread throughout our woods. (They set three hunters on our fenceline of our woods, overlooking a field they had permission to hunt.) I informed one of the guys that I had kids in the woods throughout the area, and to adjust their shooting accordingly. Meaning “Do not shoot into our woods!” He said “Oh yeah, we were told you guys were hunting there.” I told him that that is all well and good, but my kids do not know you are there! I recommended that they maybe would want to hunt the other side of the land they had permission for.
You have to “Think” of all possible scenarios when hunting to make it safe. Eyes, ears and brains are the key. Sometimes you have to think “For” the other guys to make it as safe as possible. If in a ground blind I like to wrap blaze orange tape around a tree trunk. I do this for turkey hunting on public land in the spring.

Thoughts and prayers go out to both families, a tragedy!!
ALL WAYS BE SURE OF YOUR TARGET AND BEYOND!!!!!!!!

Jon… my reply was in no way an attack on your statement, I think(and hope) you are right that it was buck fever, I would hate to find out that it was intentional.

Buck fever or not, I am just trying to visualize here.. even if it was an orange hat.. or any color hat its not important. The kid was shot in the head from what I understand… So the hunter somehow focused on the only thing he could make out that was part of the deer.. a white patch(guys face) in whatever cover the guy was in, standing, sitting, or walking through…

So.. we are shooting at a white target which translates to.. the @ss of a deer, or neck at whatever angle at whatever range which is obviously a very poor shot choice and one a sportsman should be making anyhow.

I uess my point is you have no business shooting at an animal of any kind if you dont have a proper(lethal) shot opportunity.

I am assuming the hunter took the shot from a firearm with a scope to make such a precise shot, if their eyes werent good enough to identify a human in orange, I dont think they would have hit their target with iron sights… So now we cant identify what we are shooting at through telescopic sights which also make it much easier to see in low light… but their still shooting at that patch of white they seen most likely from movement.

I know we will here more on the story, but there is no excuse, or way to sugar coat this story to make that careless, irresponsable hunter less guilty than he is. His carless, poorly judged actions took the life of another hunter in a very avoidable situation which in my eyes makes him a murderer… point blank. This guy was in his 40’s if I remember right, he sure didnt start hunting this year.

My condolences to the family of the boy who lost his life, my apologies to the family of the man who made the wrong choice… but the guy who pulled that trigger committed the ultimate crime by not using his common sense, and needs to be punished for it. His foolish actions took the life of a kid that hasnt had the chance to live just so he could take any possible chance he had to shoot at a deer.

I am not the greatest with words, but there is no way this situation should have ever happened anywhere and couldnt have happened by accident with proper decision making by any shooter.

Chris I agree that it is a horrible tragedy for for both families and I agree that it was a moment of bad judgement. Thats what makes someone a slob hunter, using bad judgement. Im sure there could be a variety of mitigating circomstances but the fact remains the he disreguarded the first rule of firearm safety. Im not out to burn this poor slob down but if one other shooter hesitates to pull the trigger because of severe punishment then it was well served. WHen I talk to the Man I’ll ask for help for all concerned.

Dave, I’d say you are pretty good with words you stated it a lot more clearly that I was able to.

Also remember, if you are hunting out of these new pop up blinds put some orange on the top of it.

This year while checking on my log pile blind before the season, I noticed the neighbors built in the middle of the field a big blind (house) and my log pile blind is in my uncles woodlot about 45 yd’s from the field edge. I took a blaze orange tee shirt with me opening day and tacked it to the tree facing the the field blind, they did not hunt out of it on sat. but did on sunday and I noticed (with bino’s) that they did not open the shootin window toward’s me but opened the other sides, made me feel better.

KEEP IT SAFE OUT THERE!!!!

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I would hate to find out that it was intentional.

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So the hunter somehow focused on the only thing he could make out that was part of the deer.. a white patch(guys face) in whatever cover the guy was in, standing, sitting, or walking through…

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So.. we are shooting at a white target which translates to.. the @ss of a deer, or neck at whatever angle at whatever range which is obviously a very poor shot choice and one a sportsman should be making anyhow.

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I am assuming the hunter took the shot from a firearm with a scope

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I know we will here more on the story, but there is no excuse, or way to sugar coat this story to make that careless, irresponsable hunter less guilty than he is.

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This is what I mean about assuming and taking things for granted. We don’t know the circumstances about his tragedy. We don’t know if it was a “Scoped” gun. We don’t know what was going through his mind when he pulled the trigger. Who said anything about him being “Less Guilty?” He did what he did. Let’s just see where the evidence takes this and learn from this.

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Let’s not pour gas on this fire for the Anti’s.

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Chris,
Do you really think that as a sportsman that us calling this joker out is fuel for the Anti’s? I would suspect if I was an Anti, that us NOT calling this guy a “slob” hunter would play into their hands more. We have to distance ourselves from people who screw up like this. To even give this guy the smallest amount of slack would be like saying “Oh well, this happens when you hunt”. You and I both know that there is no reason that this tragedy had to take place. It’s a horrible tragedy, but this guy pulled the trigger and killed a kid. No excuses. No mitigating circumstances that will ever swing my opinion. No need for me to wait for the whole story. None. This guy killed someone. Period. I know you’re not defending him, I know you’re concerned for his family too. I just think that if we step back and say, “Well what about him and his family”, that it sends the Anti’s a message too.

Hey all;

We don’t know the whole story yet.

“assumption” is that the shooter did something very terribly wrong. However, we only have assumptions.

He is innocent until proven guilty of his crime. That is the wonderfull rule in this country.

For all we know, it could have been a bullet Ricocheting off a tree that killed the boy.

For all we know, it the boy could have been in a ground blind, with only his camoflaged head sticking up with rattling horns????

To many “I don’t knows” and assumptions to string the guy up in a tree or burn him at the stake…..

It is just a horrible, horrible story, that is all I know.

Thanks Gary. That was all I was trying to say.

We don’t know all of the details granted. But those at the scene know more than we do, and he was arrested and charged with 2nd degree manslaughter. If it was an accident, they don’t usually arrest you on the spot.

609.205 Manslaughter in the second degree.

A person who causes the death of another by any of the following means is guilty of manslaughter in the second degree and may be sentenced to imprisonment for not more than ten years or to payment of a fine of not more than $20,000, or both:

(1) by the person’s culpable negligence whereby the person creates an unreasonable risk, and consciously takes chances of causing death or great bodily harm to another; or

(2) by shooting another with a firearm or other dangerous weapon as a result of negligently believing the other to be a deer or other animal; or