Ferrum student Jessica Goode grabbed her 2 friends and headed to the outdoors for some quiet time and to clear her head. They were looking for turtles for a biology assignment. She never came back. Another young person killed while away at college!
Local resident Jason D. Cloutier went out hunting. He dropped to one knee and fired at sound, killing Jessica and wounding one of her friends. He had gotten off work early and went out to do what he loved doing this time of year.
Ferrum is known for its outdoors way of life. It is a 4 year college located about 35 miles south of Roanoke. Students check their hunting weapons in with the campus security chief who keeps them in her weapons safe. Jessica Goode was studying the environment. Cloutier was not a student. Ferrum College is in the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains and it is definitely in hunting country.
What went wrong? Cloutier didn’t have a hunting license and he wasn’t on his own property. He was on county property which does not allow hunting. He obviously shot at what he heard, not what he saw. That action violates the first law of hunting.
Goode and friends weren’t wearing orange blaze in the woods during hunting season. Any woods or field can be dangerous during hunting season, even woods where no hunting is allowed. Meanwhile, 1 life has been snuffed out, and another wounded. Cloutier will probably do jail time. According to the Washington Post:
Cloutier remains free on a $20,000 bond, charged with involuntary manslaughter, reckless use of a firearm and trespass, charges that together carry a maximum of 12 years in jail and $5,000 in fines. Toxicology reports are pending, and law enforcement officials said they might add charges as the investigation continues.
The bullet passed through Jessica Goode and entered the hand of Regis Boudinot. He will recover. His step-mother, meanwhile, is pleading for clemency for the shooter and was quoted in the Washington Post on Friday:
On Thursday, Boudinot’s stepmother appealed for an end to recriminations against the hunter, who told authorities he mistook the students for deer.
“We all make mistakes, and people are saying horrible things about him without knowing the facts,” Kimberly Boudinot wrote in an e-mail to friends. “I have never known hate and cruelty to triumph over love, and I ask that everyone remember this.”
Too many of our students are dying on or near Virginia campuses. It is enough to make a person not send their kid to college–that and the tuition increases.
The community is split over the rights of hunters and those who are horrified that an accident like this could happen.
Who is at fault here, if anyone? Does an accident like this give hunters all a black eye? Is it incumbent upon those who want to enjoy the woods to deck themselves out in orange blaze or is it the sole responsibility of the hunter? Many of our contributors on Anti are gun rights people. We want to hear from you.
Notice on Ferrum’s website.
Two things:
1. “On Thursday, Boudinot’s stepmother appealed for an end to recriminations against the hunter…’I have never known hate and cruelty to triumph over love'”
Boudinot did not lose a child. And it’s not “hate” to be outraged that an unlicensed hunter went out and did whatever he felt like doing, wherever he felt like doing it.
2. “Does an accident like this give hunters all a black eye?”
Not responsible, law-abiding hunters. This guy is not responsible or law-abiding. If you took away his gun, he’d find some other way to break the law by doing whatever pleases him.
This most certainly should not give all hunters a black eye. This is guy was irresponsible in numerous ways and should be held fully accountable for his actions. Who the hell shoots at something they don’t even see. (speechless).
This time of year if going in the woods it’s always smart to sport blaze orange if there’s the potential for hunting(legal and of course illegal). Better safe than sorry. I spent a lot of time in the hunting country of WVa. growing up and always had an blaze orange baseball cap or stocking cap I had to sport during hunting season. Of course many hunt on their own land, and you need to be visible to them as well.
My family of men who hunt all think there should be NO mercy in this case for the hunter. They go get their licenses every year and pay dues to hunt on a lease legally. When you go to the trouble of following the law, you have no respect for people who don’t and cause trouble for those who do.
I have no pity for this shooter. He did not have a license (easy to procure). He wasn’t on his own property or property that he was allowed to hunt on (in that part of Virginia, everyone has a friend with land that you can hunt on). There is no excuse for his inability to follow the law. What he did was the same as driving drunk and he should be prosecuted as such.
By throwing the book at the shooter, it will save someone else’s life. Next year when hunting season opens, more “guys who get off early to hunt” will think twice about not getting a license or about trespassing on county owned land. Or someone will tell their buddy that they headed up to county land to hunt and their buddy will talk them out of it. Perhaps that will prevent a future accident.
As far as the students not wearing blaze orange, this time of year it is prudent to always wear orange when in the woods, even if you are out on your own land and even if you are in a no hunting area. The students may not have been prudent, but they are not to blame for what happened.
There is apparently quite a fervor going on down in southwest since this shooting. Warring factions.
Thanks for your input, Anona. I pretty much agree with you.
As for the orange blaze, even if you don’t have to, it is a good idea. My parents had land down in the Northern Neck. They had it posted and generally told hunters NO when they asked. That didn’t keep everyone off. There were always poachers. Mother even put blaze on her dogs collars.
” The Menace of Firearms – – With each return of the hunting season comes
the list of casualties which could have been avoided by the exercise of
reasonable care in the handling of firearms. Until men and boys learn
to think and to remember at all times that a gun is a weapon frought with
constant danger to themselves and to those around them, this list
will continue to grow.”
The Manassas Journal
(November 12, 1909)
An old sad story – what a terrible tragedy.
The fault clearly lies with the hunter who should be held fully accountable for his lack of responsibility.
It seems that every year there is a case of someone not properly identifying the target before firing. This is an egregious case, so the authorities should take the opportunity to make an example of the offender.
I couldn’t agree more with every facet of your statement !@anona
All of this orange just trains the idiots with guns (they don’t deserve to be called hunters) to just shoot anything that isn’t orange.
I used to be pro-Second Amendment, insisting on no restrictions, but there are just too many stupid people who get their hands on firearms.
I don’t know if more safety training will do any good, since murderers like Jason D. Cloutier, would get their hands on a gun, anyway, without training.
Jason D. Cloutier should be tried for murder, not, “involuntary manslaughter.” He pointed a rifle and pulled the trigger. He clearly intended to kill, and since he didn’t bother to have a clear sight picture, he didn’t really care who or what he killed.
This isn’t a “tragic accident” it is premeditated murder. Jason D. Cloutier went to the woods to kill and he murdered one citizen an wounded another.
@anona
I can’t add to that. Your comment was spot on!
@Moon-howler
>>> As for the orange blaze, even if you don’t have to, it is a good idea.
And don’t wear anything WHITE!
I don’t know why people need to hunt anyway.
@Firedancer
>>> I don’t know why people need to hunt anyway.
A lot of folks aren’t 15 minutes away from their local Wegman, Harris Teeter, Safeway or Giant stores.
To shoot at a sound is beyond negligent, stupid, and careless. To hunt without a license and then to be on property where hunting isn’t allowed in the first place shows he cared nothing about the laws. I can totally understand the frustration and anger about this situation, and I’d bet hunters are some of the people most upset about this. Hunting is a tradition that goes beyond sport for many, it is a way to feed a family. (Especially in southern VA and the in the Piedmont region.) In my husband’s family, the turkey that is served on Thanksgiving was brought in from a hunt, not Giant. Deer meat is a staple. (For the record, I prefer chicken and beef, but oh well!) This Cloutier person is not representative of the responsible, law-abiding hunters who carry on this tradition with respect for the outdoors and with concern for the safety of not only themselves, but others in the vicinity. What Cloutier did goes beyond being “a mistake”, which was what the well-meaning stepmom of the injured young man called it. My heart goes out to all of the families, what a tragedy, one that should never have happened.
In Virginia, hunting is a tradition and a sport, Firedancer. It is as old as the colony.
Everyone has a far better answer than I do.
IWK Manassas
Well written and thoughtful! Appreciate your comment very much. Thanks!
I can understand hunting as a way to eat, but not as a sport. No way.
Bravo, IWK. I agree.
Firedancer, I don’t know what to tell you. It wouldn’t be MY sport but many people do not agree. Fishing is also a sport. Is there a difference?
she had on a brown carhartt coat and a white scarf around her neck !!!
Welcome philly. Even if she had a sign on her that read D-E-E-R she didn’t deserve to be shot. It is the responsibility of a hunter to see his/her target before shooting.
No guessing allowed.
COME ON GUYS….I AM A HUNTERS DAUGHTER…WHO BY THE WAY TOOK HIS LIFE WITH HIS HUNTING GUN….JUST HATE IT ALL….BUT MY DAD ALWAYS HAD HIS SITE ON THE DEER…OR HE NEVER FIRED THAT DAMN GUN….WHO IN THEIR TRIGHT MIND JUST FIRES INTO THE WOODS WITHOUT SEEING WHAT HES SHOOTING…..NO ONE ….I CANNOT IMAGINE THE PAIN OF JESSICAS FAMILY…I SAY HE NEEDS TO BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE FOR WHT HES DONE…SNUFFED OUT A BEAUTIFUL GIRLS LIFE….I AM SO AFRAID TO LET MY KIDS OUT IN THE WOODS HERE….NO WAY…I HEAR GUN SHOTS DAILY AS I AM HERE IN FRANKLIN COUNTY…NOT SO SURE ABOUT THIS HUNTING AND GUN SHIT….GUNS ARE MADE FOR ONE THING …..TO KILL
I KNOW ITS A TRADITION AND MY DAD WOULD PROB TOTALLY DISAGREE …BUT I SAY GUNS ARE MADE TO KILL …AND NO LESS…TOOK MY DADS LIFE