Officer pleads not guilty after daughter shot
Jun 6, 2012, 5:20 AM | Updated: 6:22 am
A Washington state police officer accused of leaving a loaded handgun in the family van where his young son could grab it and fatally shoot his 7-year-old sister has pleaded not guilty to a second-degree manslaughter charge.
Marysville police Officer Derek Carlile entered his plea Tuesday in Snohomish County Superior Court. The charge involves criminal negligence.
Prosecutors say the 31-year-old officer’s 3-year-old son grabbed a .38-caliber revolver from a cup holder bin next to the driver’s seat of the family van and fatally shot his sister, Jenna. The officer’s four young children were waiting in the van for Carlile and his wife to return from a quick errand on March 10.
“The family is having obviously a difficult time, nevertheless it’s a family with a tremendous amount of faith and support, and they are moving forward with this,” Carlile’s attorney David Allen tells KING 5.
Carlile’s lawyers have said that he takes full responsibility for his daughter’s death but disputes that he committed a crime.
“We’re saying this is an accident,” says Allen. “That’s not to say that there wasn’t some carelessness involved. Certainly there was or this would not have taken place. But it does not match up with the gross negligence that is required for the state to prove a crime in this case.”
Trial was set for Aug. 24. Carlile remains on paid administrative leave.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
