SALEM, OREGON – An Oregon hunter has been found not guilty of manslaughter in the shooting death of a marine reservist from California, Christopher Ochoa, whom he mistook for a bear.
Eugene Collier, 68, told jurors he was hunting with his 12-year-old grandson in October 2011 near Oregon’s Silver Falls State Park and said he was sure he was shooting at a bear. Collier testified Friday he was about 100 yards (90 meters) from his target when he realized he had shot a human. “I froze,” he recalled. “I thought the only person up there was my grandson. Then I realized he wasn’t dressed like that.”
His grandson heard the shot from his hunting stand and came running. “I said: ‘I shot somebody. We got to go get help,’ ” Collier told the court.
Prosecutor Tiffany Underwood suggested that Collier was aware of a risk and disregarded it. “A reasonable person would look at something for longer than two or three seconds before firing at it,” she said. “If defendant had looked at Christopher Ochoa for longer than two or three seconds, we might not be here.”