Bullet goes through my sons bedroom window!

[H22ate]

Technically, the State Police can file charges without your consent. That’s not the preferred method but it can be done. If you were “subpoenaed” to testify that would take some of the sting out of so called pressing charges. The likely outcome is based on a lot of factors. How good is the evidence they can bring to bear on one person. You can’t charge a group of people. One person pulled the trigger. Unless there are other holes in your house you haven’t seen. And that is possible.

Lots of factors involved. Chances are one or many of the guys your confronted have a criminal record and possibly the one that shot is prohibited from Possessing and facing a severe penalty. It’s possible you will be getting a phone call from a criminal investigator, plainclothes. You likely talked with a uniformed Trooper.

You don’t have anything to lose by talking to an attorney. If you get involved as a victim...which you will have to do if there is to be a case.....you will possibly have to miss work for one or more hearings. The preliminary hearing would be the most uncomfortable when you’d have to testify before a district justice the events of the day. Unless the hearing is waived.

As far as retribution, a defendant would be risking compounding the severe penalties by even contacting you or harassing your family. But bottom line is it was recklessly endangering and negligent if they reasonably should have known a house was in the line of fire.

These are just quick thoughts and by no means advice. It’s your call. If they fix the window for you, that could be used as evidence of a guilty conscience. And anything they say to you while they are there of a damaging nature....could also become evidence.

Curious, is the gun in the pond? They might be back to retrieve it. Trail cameras?

You are right, the police can file the charges. That's what they initially told me they were going to do. Then after not being able to find a gun, and hearing multiple conflicting stories with the ones at fault, they had said they would let it wait a bit and see if I got paid damages. Just on a hunch I would say they themselves wouldn't want to push it too far because like I said before, you have six people with all different stories and a "missing" gun.
For your last question, No the gun is not in the pond. I watched them throw all of their firearms and ammo.....yes throw/toss them into the back of a truck. Im sure when they got back to the house they were visiting it got stashed somewhere because whom ever "owned" it said it was a hot piece.
That's just my thoughts but Im pretty sure im right on this one.

I would just wait to see if someone pays to fix the window, if not then maybe turn it into your homeowners? Sometimes the easiest way out of these situations is the best way.

And if it were me, I would think twice about seeking out the origin of a bullet that just flew through a window in my house. Especially at night. I would let the authorities handle the situation.

Bullet holes in windows are a lot easier to fix than bullet holes in your body.

That would be the way a lot of people in their right mind would think however Im a little bit left. I have too many contacts, family, and friends in LE to know that without evidence there is nothing you could do. Maybe it was adrenalin, maybe stupidity..... but when something like this happens in the spur of the moment the only thing that was on my mind was find out the moron that did it.

Turning it into home owners is kind of out of the question. $500 pane of glass and a $700 deductible. Not to mention I can only make one claim a year or my premium goes up..... not worth a broken window first thing in January....

So unfortunately Ill be another Fayette county statistic....... Another house with packing tape over a bullet hole (at least it isn't duct tape)

[GunLawyer001]

I've handled 2 cases where homes were in the line of fire of recreational shooters. In one instance, the shooters were almost certainly responsible for the round that hit a parked car. In the other, the home owner was bug-nuts and lied out his ass, claiming that 9mm rounds (a) traveled through 500 yards of dense woods in a trajectory that was physically impossible, and (b) made .22 caliber holes in the sheet metal of his various parked trailers.

In the latter case, the nutcase really did have holes in trailers on his junkyard of a lot, but we measured them with a micrometer, and they were .22 cal. Probably made by kids shooting squirrels some other day, or by neighbors he pissed off, or maybe by him; he really was nuts. (The PA State Trooper told me that 9mm bullets can easily make .22 cal holes, I forget if he said if it was entry or exit holes that "shrank down like that". He failed to increase my appraisal of the average intelligence of PA State Troopers.)

People don't understand where their bullets go. I fired an AR pistol indoors once at a range, and I was sure that the rounds went downrange before the muzzle flipped up...until the overhead wire fell down. (I like to think that it's evidence that I had the muzzle dead-centered on the bullseye, to be able to cut a wire with a 5.56 round.)

I suspect that homes are hit a lot more often than people are aware. A round impacting at a random spot on your home exterior is unlikely to immediately come to your attention much of the time, if it unceremoniously comes through your roof or impacts the chimney or plows through the siding and embeds itself in the sofa. Especially if you're asleep or at work or shopping when it happens. This also means that when someone hears shooting, and they come look for holes, they might find a hole from months earlier. Not the case in the OP, where the window made the new arrival obvious; but it can happen.

I don't have much problem with criminal prosecutions of people being grossly negligent with firearms, particularly where the "berm" is wholly imaginary.

[Parrisk]

We have a seasonal campsite in Susquehanna County.. yeah only 30 miles from home.. but last Spring as everyone was opening their campers one lady noticed a hole in the side of her new camper. Campground owners came up and there was a bullet lodged into her couch. looking at the line of side it came from a neighboring property of trouble makers. Police came for the report but since nobody knew when it happened and the fact it came from the direction of wooded property all they could do is talk to the neighbors and she could file and insurance claim :-(

[jthrelf]

I'd definitely pursue charges. It's clearly a case of criminal negligence and they should not get away with just fixing the window and being on their way. In the mean time, make sure your home defense plans/weapons are ready to go.

[RBELARDI]

Here is how I would handle it. JMO again. When (IF) the person taking responsibility contacts you, tell him you want to meet him at your residence. If he doesn't know exactly where u live meet him off site somewhere and bring pictures. Tell him you want to meet with as many of the people that were shooting that day as possible. (Might work might not). When you meet him explain to him that you aren't pressing charges because he "stepped up to the plate and took responsibility for his actions".

Also explain to him that the PSP gave you the option to collect the $$$ and press charges which you aren't doing.

Explain to him in case he didn't know the dangers of shooting like he did.

Get an estimate to get the window replaced and give it to him and tell him you will send him the pictures of it complete after the work is done so he doesn't think u are taking the $$$ and spending it on new guns. . . LOL

You get to chalk it up to a lesson taught and hopefully he chalks it up tp a lesson learned.

If he doesn't take responsibility for it nail them to the wall.

[unclejumbo]

Many, many thoughts.
--There are several things they can be charged with. They will only be charged with your blessing. You and your family are the victims and without a victim, there is no crime. Meaning it will be up to you if there are criminal charges.
--PSP should have threatened to confiscate every single gun for ballistics testing (which takes months and months) in order to recover the firearm that launched the projectile. They also would have been well within bounds to conduct a consent search or hold the vehicles until a warrant was obtained.
--You don't need your own attorney if you're going the criminal route, the Commonwealth attorney is your attorney.
--You can recover far more than the cost of the damage if you want to bitch slap them without using the criminal justice system. You'll need an attorney for that. Even if it's only 5K, that's a punch in the gut.

[Williamsmith]

Because no one was hit, it is going to dampen the interest in building a case. Resources. Without the .40 cal handgun there is no case....period. With the recovered round, a comparison could be made to the gun in question if it was in evidence. And a match would give you the first step in the case. Now you have to prove who shot the round that hit your house. All the actors have to say is, “we all took turns shooting”. Maybe they are stupid enough to talk to investigators. Maybe they have already seen an attorney. The way it looks to me is....you have nothing now. Possibly, a search of the gun registry would show thta one of your actors owns a .40 cal handgun. Police can go and suggest he submit it for examination. Hat might give you the gun. Why would he refuse if he legitimately wants to assist? As it is, there is no reason a .40 cal handgun shouldn’t have been at that scene.

[RenoV8]

When he told me the towns where the license plates came back to (drug related towns about 30 miles away!), it made me think getting paid and pressing charges would be a bad idea due to some type of retaliation.

If I don't have somebody show up and pay for a window in the next day or two I am without a doubt going to press charges, but if I do get payment for my damages should I still press charges?

It just makes me sick thinking that it was more than likely a stolen firearm that committed this event, and another bad mark in the eyes of society on the good responsible firearm owners out there!!!

Any thoughts on how this should be handled???

Not to be a hard ass, but all the info you need to make the "right" decision, not just a decision is all contained in these few sentences above.

Retaliation...do you really want that element around, either for your sake or that of others?

Stolen firearm....enough said.

Does it really boil down to being compensated for the damages, which will determine whether or not you press charges?

Pass and make this someone else's issue?

[GunLawyer001]

Because no one was hit, it is going to dampen the interest in building a case. Resources. Without the .40 cal handgun there is no case....period. With the recovered round, a comparison could be made to the gun in question if it was in evidence. And a match would give you the first step in the case. Now you have to prove who shot the round that hit your house. All the actors have to say is, “we all took turns shooting”. Maybe they are stupid enough to talk to investigators. Maybe they have already seen an attorney. The way it looks to me is....you have nothing now. Possibly, a search of the gun registry would show thta one of your actors owns a .40 cal handgun. Police can go and suggest he submit it for examination. Hat might give you the gun. Why would he refuse if he legitimately wants to assist? As it is, there is no reason a .40 cal handgun shouldn’t have been at that scene.

Actually, there's enough circumstantial evidence to convict every one of them for conspiracy and evidence tampering and criminal negligence, based on statements made in this thread. The fact that they hid the gun isn't exculpatory, it's incriminating, it shows a guilty mind. The OP can testify as to what he saw and what they said, and that's just as much evidence as ballistics tests on the gun involved. If they find spent .40 casings, even better.

[Royinmontco]

Woke up at 11pm to the sound of our alarm going off and my mom crawling into my room with a ppk in her hand. I was 16 when this happened:

http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/199...bullets-screen