advice needed - son (5) hit with pellet gun on neck by neighbour aged 31

kayevajo

my son was playing sword fights with his friend aged 5, they both had hurleys and were both gelty tapping each other with them.the childs father was watcching from an upstairs bedroom window , as was I from our sitting room window.
after about 5 minutes my son comes in roaring crying , and i said to my wife (who is 8 months pregnant) that it was only a matter of time before one of them came in crying! i asked my son what happened him and he said the parent hit him with a gun!
on further investigation i realised my son was telling the truth and he was indeed hit wit a pellet gun from his friends dad, it left a big mark on the side of my sons neck.

my wife and i decided the best way to go about it was to ask the father had he done it , so in a calm manner i asked him and he started to get very aggressive and denied it , i then went over to my son who had gone back outside and brought him over and showed the parent the mark.
he said it was a wasp that had done it, so i said i was going to the guards. he has done this before to my daughter and another neighbours child.

i went to the guards and i asked for his advice , he said it didnt look like a wasp sting and that if i wanted to do anything about it , i would have to make a complaint and a statement would be taken from my son. while i was in the guards , my wife heard him taking the piss out of me and the situation with other neighbours.

any advice on what to do? i dont like this person anyway and just barely say hello to him ,

do i go back to the guards or let it go?

thanks.

January

Hi OP, I've moved your thread here as I feel you will get better responses from the posters of this forum.

Mods - if you want to move it back, that's fine.

dx22

Wow...not a parent or anything, but to
me that sounds deadly serious- matter for the gardai i would have thought, especially if this is not the first time!

Stercus Accidit

This is a very serious matter and you should pursue it with the gardai. Once you make a formal complaint within a few days they should have a warrant to search the neighbors home, they will search and will seize any suspected firearms in the house.

It may be a low powered bb gun in which case it isn't a firearm, but there would still be an assault charge to answer if your child can confirm it was the neighbour who shot him, his statement would need to be airtight with no room for error.

If as you said this has happened before, I would pursue this with the guards, a man who shoots children with an air gun is deserving of the assault charge he earns, there is a possible assault with a deadly weapon charge in some interpretations of the law, and a possible illegal possession of a firearm charge if the gun used is classed as one by our laws, though this is up to the DOJ to pursue, not you.

As far as I know you can initiate assault proceedings and have control of how far they go, the other charges are out of your hands.

I am not a lawyer but I have some experience of these particular laws with regards air guns as I own a few and like to remain legal and safe in my hobby, you may get more expert advice from a legal professional or a garda.

AwayWithFaries

I personally think you should persist. Shooting at kids is unacceptable and if this individual has a habit of this kind of stuff it could only be a matter of time before someone gets hurt. It's all fun and games until someone loses an eye...

Bucklesman

That's just not on.

OP, if you're in two minds about making a complaint, take a picture of the mark now in case you need it later on. And write down what happened and what people said!

partyatmygaff

That's way out of order.

You never ever fire an airsoft rifle at someone's head (Least of all a five year old!), especially not when they are without any head protection. He could have blinded your son or permanently scarred him. It's people like him who give airsoft a bad name.

I'd report him without any hesitation.

Doom

Ffs Do something, what if he had taken your kids eye out

BostonB

he could have blinded him. Take it all the way legally.

What moron shoots pellets at a 5yr old.

Bucklesman

partyatmygaff wrote: »

That's way out of order.

You never ever fire an airsoft rifle at someone's head (Least of all a five year old!), especially not when they are without any head protection. He could have blinded your son or permanently scarred him. It's people like him who give airsoft a bad name.

I'd report him without any hesitation.

OP did just say a pellet gun, but you're probably right about it being an airsoft device. Shooting a five-year-old with no eye, face or neck protection with an AEG is shameful.

I'm an airsofter too btw.

kayevajo

thanks for all the advice guys.

i forgot to add that when i left to go to the guards , he was sweeping up in between the cars (we live in a courtyard with communal parking) to remove evidence i presume.

my wife also overheard him saying that the device was broken and hadn`t worked for ages. so i presum he went in and broke it as soon as i headed off. if it was a wasp sting the mark would be gone soon enough i would say , but i would imagine a pellet gun would leave a bruise for a while?

TheNewMe

An adult who shoots at a child with any kind of weapon is someone who has clearly crossed the line of what is acceptable conduct. It's clearly somebody who can't weigh the possible consequences of their actions. I don't think anybody in their right mind can think shooting a five year old with a pellet gun is ever justified.

I think you have a parental duty to try and stop this behaviour before it escalates to something more serious. Go straight back to the guards and don't leave until they take you seriously.

kayevajo

TheNewMe wrote: »

An adult who shoots at a child with any kind of weapon is someone who has clearly crossed the line of what is acceptable conduct. It's clearly somebody who can't weigh the possible consequences of their actions. I don't think anybody in their right mind can think shooting a five year old with a pellet gun is ever justified.

I think you have a parental duty to try and stop this behaviour before it escalates to something more serious. Go straight back to the guards and don't leave until they take you seriously.

i have to say the guard was quiet heplful and did remark that it didnt look like a wasp sting to him and that it looked quiet nasty.

the thing is . my son is quiet shy around strangers and i would be worried about getting some kind of a statement out of him.

Oh_Noes

Absolutely agree with all the other posters. You should pursue it with the Gardai and look for a prosecution before he goes and does it again. Guy sounds like a nut job shooting anything at 5 year olds and laughing about it. If you let him away with it, he might do something worse next time. Even if your son is shy, he's allowed to be because he's 5. I don't think the case would hinge on him making a statement, especially now as a guard has already seen the bruise and made a remark about it.

yosser hughes

Pursue it by all means,but have you any actual proof that your child was hit by a pellet gun? It doesn't sound like you do. I wouldn't expect too much from the Gardai in this matter.

Officer Giggles

take a picture of the injury straight away with a camera that prints the time and date onto the picture as that is the only way of proving when the picture was taken for evidence purposes, your son will then have to make a statement to a garda, probably in your wifes presence or another adult, as you will need to give a statement outlinging what you saw going on prior to the incident, if you have any dealings with your neighbour or he says anything to you make a note of it in a diary, you may also proceed with a civil suit against your neighbour if you wish, this entails a lesser standard of proof but a criminal conviction in relation to the incident would be great, this man should not be allowed get away with this, if it turned out his gun is broken that makes no difference as he is probably unable to prove when the gun broke

James Jones

If you don't do something he'll do it again!

Officer Giggles

James Jones wrote: »

If you don't do something he'll do it again!

and maybe next time he might take someones eye out

MagicSean

kayevajo wrote: »

i have to say the guard was quiet heplful and did remark that it didnt look like a wasp sting to him and that it looked quiet nasty.

the thing is . my son is quiet shy around strangers and i would be worried about getting some kind of a statement out of him.

There are gardai in every region trained in child interview techniques with facilities for these interviews. The Garda can request their assistance if needed.

okioffice84

If you can, take your child to a GP to seek an opinion as to whether the mark was caused by a wasp sting

daveee

first grow yourself apair of balls.Then go over and drag him out of his house in front of his kids,dont forget to bring a baseball bat or something similler ,and dont stop hitting him with it till you havent got the strenght to hit him any more.He wont do that again to any child!

NO ONE has the right to hit a child MAN UP!!

muboop1

daveee wrote: »

first grow yourself apair of balls.Then go over and drag him out of his house in front of his kids,dont forget to bring a baseball bat or something similler ,and dont stop hitting him with it till you havent got the strenght to hit him any more.He wont do that again to any child!

NO ONE has the right to hit a child MAN UP!!

Ah thats a good idea...

Sure why don't you murder him while you are at it?

It's a despicable thing that was done, but let the garda deal with it unless you don't mind doing some jail time yourself!

amiable

yosser hughes wrote: »

Pursue it by all means,but have you any actual proof that your child was hit by a pellet gun? It doesn't sound like you do. I wouldn't expect too much from the Gardai in this matter.

Is that not up to the gardai to investigate the matter and look for proof if a complaint is made?
OP if i were you i'd make a complaint to the Gardai
Next time the pellet could take his eye out.

Joey the lips

If someone hit my child or pointed a pellet gun at my child i would go to the guards. Its just look it was not his eye that got it.

However i would not have told my neighbour i was going to the guards. Chances are the gun is gone now.

If your living in a particular area it might make life difficult for you to ring the guards..

However as i say your lucky its not his eye..

As for them fighting "Gental" with the swords this has no bearing even if they were kicking the living daylights out of each other has no bearing.

This man is an adult and your boy is a child.

RachaelVO

The gards might not be able to do much, in as much as they would sympathise. The mark is probably easily identifiable by people in the know as being a mark from a pellet gun, but you're gonna have difficulty proving it was him.

Your neighbour is clearly a bully. Do the rest of the neighbours on your street feel the same way about him? Seems to me (and god knows I'm not suggesting anything) he needs a taste of his own medicine!

murphthesmurf

:eek: :eek:
I had o read part of ops original post twice and couldn't believe what I'd read.
This is a very serious incident. I'm original from UK and I know there are some differences between Irish and English laws where air guns and bb guns are concerned. But to willfully discharge a firearm at someone would be a very serious crime whatever the country.
This is potentially a jail term. The Gard to me seemed a little laid back on this (although I wasn't there so may be a little unfair) but I feel he should have stressed to you just how serious this is. It makes no difference if its a bb gun or a .44 magnum. He willfully discharged a firearm at your son.
As others have said, this could very very easily have blinded your son had it hit him in the eye, and in worse case scenario passed straight through the back of the eye and caused unknown damage.
If this is not the 1st time he has done this then the man is a serious danger, and really needs to be dealt with. I may be over reacting, but imo if someone is capable of doing this to little kids, then what else is he capable of?
GET DOWN THE GAURDS