Bizarre suicide
(from Strange but true stories - 06 November 2000)
man would have survived suicide but was killed by another first
At the 1994 annual awards dinner given by the American Association for Forensic Science, AAFS President Don Harper Mills astounded his audience in San Diego with the legal complications of a bizarre death. Here is the story: "On 23 March 1994, the medical examiner viewed the body of Ronald Opus and concluded that he died from a shotgun wound of the head. The decedent had jumped from the top of a ten- story building intending to commit suicide (he left a note indicating his despondency). As he fell past the ninth floor, his life was interrupted by a shotgun blast through a window, which killed him instantly. Neither the shooter nor the decedent was aware that a safety net had been erected at the eighth floor level to protect some window washers and that Opus would not have been able to complete his suicide anyway because of this." "Ordinarily," Dr. Mills continued, "a person who sets out to commit suicide ultimately succeeds, even though the mechanism might not be what he intended. That Opus was shot on the way to certain death nine stories below probably would not have changed his mode of death from suicide to homicide. But the fact that his suicidal intent would not have been successful caused the medical examiner to feel that he had homicide on his hands. "The room on the ninth floor whence the shotgun blast emanated was occupied by an elderly man and his wife. They were arguing and he was threatening her with the shotgun. He was so upset that, when he pulled the trigger, he completely missed his wife and the pellets went through the window striking Opus. "When one intends to kill subject A but kills subject B in the attempt, one is guilty of the murder of subject B. When confronted with this charge, the old man and his wife were both adamant that neither knew that the shotgun was loaded. The old man said it was his long-standing habit to threaten his wife with the unloaded shotgun. He had no intention to murder her - therefore, the killing of Opus appeared to be an accident. That is, the gun had been accidentally loaded. Find other Odds and ends articles
Comments
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Lindsey: i guess everything does happen for a reason ;)(19/05/2010)
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Jordan: I've heard another version of this story that Ronald Opus was actually the old couple's son, he knew that his father threatened his mother with the gun so loaded it, hoping his father would shoot his mother, killing her and he would recieve the inheritance, but because it took so long for his father to "kill" his mother, he decided to commit suicide, which is exactly the same point that the gun that he had loaded was shot, killing himself. whether that's true or not I don't know, but it makes a good story!(21/08/2008)
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Jackie A: Just crazy!!(10/07/2007)
- Tory : How is it ok to the authorities that this old man had been threatening his wife with a gun, loaded or unloaded numerous times? How is the WIFE ok with this? And how does one "accidentally" load a gun? An assault charge is in order, not a murder one. (24/06/2005)
