Farmer jailed over fatal shooting of man after 'tripping on eggplant'

A Victorian farmer who said he tripped on an eggplant and accidentally shot and killed a man has been sentenced to five years' jail.

Angelo Russo, 55, pleaded guilty to manslaughter over the February 2017 death of David Calandro, 43, who was shot in front of his two young sons while sitting in his ute.

The shooting happened shortly after Mr Calandro's vehicle had hit and badly injured Russo's dog Harry at the latter's Tatura farm.

Both men knew each other and Mr Calandro had been at Russo's farm with his sons to pick some vegetables.

Russo had just put Harry out of his misery using a shotgun and was holding the firearm as he approached Mr Calandro's vehicle.

But he stumbled and hit the barrel of the gun on the driver's window.

The gun was faulty and unknown to Russo it could fire when bumped, which it did that day, fatally shooting Mr Calandro in the head.

Russo pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced in the Supreme Court on Friday to five years' jail with a minimum term of two-and-a-half years.

https://www.sbs.com.au/news/farmer-who-fatally-shot-man-after-tripping-on-eggpla...

The judge was satisfied that the shooting was purely accidental, but this is another argument for tighter gun control.
The fewer people with guns the safer we all will be.

freediver wrote on Jul 21^st, 2018 at 11:22am:


Because it was negligent
He was walking towards someone with a loaded gun pointed at them

The_Barnacle wrote on Jul 21^st, 2018 at 11:38am:


That is not stated in the Link.  This makes no sense.  If it was an accident......not guilty.  But, he entered a 'guilty' plea.  On the bare facts known from the Link, I say the Judge ought to have rejected that plea.

Baronvonrort wrote on Jul 21^st, 2018 at 3:42pm:


Well unless guns can shoot around corners it must have been held in the general direction of the victim otherwise he wouldn't have been shot.

I am aware that guns can accidentally discharge. In the US about 500 people are killed every year by unintentional shootings. Fortunately in Australia these figures are much lower (even on a per capita basis) due to our better gun laws and lack of a gun culture.

The_Barnacle wrote on Jul 22^nd, 2018 at 11:38am:


There is a claim he tripped and fell so there is no evidence the shotgun was pointed at the victim until the offender tripped and fell.

If he had a pump action shotgun this might not have happened, after firing a shot the empty cartridge is still in the chamber until the pump action is cycled so much safer than a double or triple barrel shotgun.

For some reason we can have pump action rifles with 10 times the effective range of a shotgun that have 10 round magazines yet the bedwetters are frightened of low velocity short range pump action shotguns.