http://www.channel2000.com/news/stories/news-53654420010312-220347.html

Channel 2000 - Pellet Kills Riverside County Boy

Pellet Kills Riverside County Boy
BB Lodges Near 9-Year-Old's Heart

Paul J. Young, Staff Writer

March 12, 2001, 8:24 p.m. PST
NORCO, Calif. -- Riverside County authorities say that a death in
Norco this week once more underscores why it's necessary for any
type of gun to be handled with extreme care.
 Riverside County sheriff's officials say that a 9-year-old boy died
Monday morning from a pellet wound.
The victim, Travis Ritchie, apparently was playing in a vacant lot
with friends late Sunday when he was shot.
Witnesses told investigators that Travis was dodging behind trees
and other objects as two friends fired an air rifle in his
direction. The boys were taking pot shots at makeshift targets,
authorities say, and Travis may have goaded them to take aim at him.

They did, despite warnings from a passer-by who yelled at the boys
to quit fooling around, according to CBS 2 News.
A pellet found its mark and lodged adjacent to the victim's heart.
"He knew that he had been shot," Riverside County Sheriff's
Department spokesman Mark Lohman told CBS 2 News Monday. "However,
right off the bat, they didn't realize how serious the injury was.
"Travis was saying that he didn't feel real good, so they told him,
'Sit down; rest for a little bit.' But as he started feeling worse,
the boys realized that they needed to take him home to his parents."
By that time it was apparently too late.
The victim's father called 911, and Travis was rushed to Riverside
Community Hospital, where he died hours later.
Investigators told CBS 2 News that the fourth-grader was shot at a
range of 20 feet. The BB penetrated several inches into chest.
The air rifle used in the fatal accident was a Crosman repeater.
The packaging and instructions included with the BB gun clearly
advise adult supervision anytime the rifle is used.
Lohman said that no charges will be filed against the parents or
children connected to the fatal accident.

Copyright 2001 by Channel 2000. All rights reserved. This material
may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

What next? Ban all pellets guns?

The radio report I heard said that the travis kid kept jumping in front of the kids with the bb gun and they told him several times stop but he ignored them and finally got shot.

Sounds like a Darwin award nominee to me.

"What next? Ban all pellets guns?"


No, sue Crosman for millions.

That's the American way.  

I had a pellet gun for years at a young age.  Didn't occur to me to shoot at PEOPLE with it.

Man, I am glad I don't have children.

I believe that air powered guns, are classified as firearms in some Calif. communities.

Several inches of penetration?  Wow.

We used to shoot each other, but you were only allowed 1 pump.

Damn!  One of the local sleazebags shot me with a fully pumped Red Ryder when I was a kid (shoulder from ~15 feet) and it hurt like a bastard, but left no more than a welt...

I'm afraid I don't understand why it would be OK to kill someone with an air rifle. The victim was stupid? That leaves a lot of people at risk. Can you kill someone with a bow & arrow if they’re stupid?  

Are you guys sure this is true?  Shot in the chest at 20 ft with a couple inches of penetration just doesn't seem plausable.  3 pumps on my crossman will blow clear through a bird but their mostly air.

I had a opposum in my garage once, I was afraid the kids was going to get bit and the damn thing wouldn't leave the cabinet he was holed up in so I shot him with the ole BB gun.  10 pumps and multiple shots, he was bleeding like hell and dazed but still all I did was make him madder.  This was at point blank range. I ended up impaleing him on a rake and well the rest is kind of sick but you get the point.  I suppose you could get killed by a BB gun but it sounds like a urban legend to me.

I am not sure this is an urban legend, but the 10pm tv news also reported the same story.  Could it be that someone pulling my leg, I don't really know.

some of those things have 850f.p.s velocities so I can see how it can penetrate in soft tissue (if it was a high power unit), I don't see how it missed all the bone. Very unfortunate I guess.

well, once i heard of a kid being killed by a pellet. the pellet hit a major blood vessel and the pellet acually moved through hit blood stream into hif heart, much like a blood clot. perhaps this is more like what happened and the "penetrating sevral inches into the chest" guff is just an assumption by some news agencey.

The article title says "Pellet" then "BB" kills boy. So which was it?

I can't see a BB or .177 cal pellet killing a boy at 20 feet so easily.

I, like many of you, use to play with war games with BB guns. Rules were 1 pump and safety glasses and our batting helmets. I don't recall anyone using more than 1 pump to play.


On the other hand they do make .22 call air guns that hurl a projectile around 900 fps. that could kill. Are we sure it was really a Crossman BB gun, you know how the media screws things up.

I think we should ban them along with slingshots, rubberbands and straws.

My dad bought one of those high powered pellet guns and i believe that it is more than powerful enough to kill someone. It would go through a half inch of plywood which is a hell of a lot for a pellet. Only thing is that it cost like 700 dollars and is really hard to cock, so i doubt that is what the kids were using.

No way guys, I totally believe some of these modern BB guns can kill someone, especially a child.  Don't forget, although BBs don't have much mass, they are non-expanding steel with a very small cross section.  This can make them very capable of penetrating a person's chest.  I know a guy who has a Daisy 880, he shoots squirrels and rabbits with it and at 10 pumps, I've seen with my own eyes that the BB or pellet goes clean through and exits without being found in the close vicinity.  The ability to go through a rabbit is plenty of penetration to go the three or so inches through a child's chest to his heart at 20 feet.

I'm not talking $400 competition pellet rifles either, I'm talking $40 K-Mart or Wal-Mart special Crosman or Daisy rifles that fire a BB or pellet at 650-700+ FPS.

The warning labels indicating a potential to seriously injure or kill are there for a reason.  At 20 feet I can easily believe a high velocity BB killed that poor kid.