Amina Kocer-Bowman, pictured in a 2012 photo from KOMO/4. Amina was shot in the stomach by a 9-year-old classmate who'd taken a gun from his mother's boyfriend.
Seattlepi
A Bremerton man previously convicted of assault after his stepson accidentally shot a classmate with his pistol has been cleared by the state Supreme Court.
In a split decision, a majority of the high court found that Douglas Bauer shouldn’t have been convicted of assault after his girlfriend’s then-9-year-old son accidentally shot a classmate with his handgun.
Reversing the trial court’s decision, the majority ruled that Bauer’s conduct – leaving a loaded gun unsecured – didn’t cause the non-fatal shooting at the Bremerton elementary school.
“Bauer’s act of gun ownership, in contrast, is not felonious or criminal,” Justice Sheryl Gordon McCloud wrote for the majority. “His decision to keep loaded weapons around the house is not, in itself, a crime in this state, either.”
