(UPDATED: see below)
On the first day of deer hunting season last November, in Blairsville, Pennsylvania, Arcangelo Bianco Jr., 40, was in town doing some banking when he saw a 10-point whitetail deer run through the Walmart parking lot.
He grabbed his hunting rifle out of his car and immediately shot "several shots" at the deer, pursuing it through the parking lot and across the street until he killed it. He then took off with the carcass and took it away.
He is now being charged with reckless endangerment and hunting law violations
From an article:
According to the commission, Bianco fired several rounds at a hapless white-tailed deer from within the Burrell Township store’s parking lot and bagged the animal on the other side of Old William Penn Highway (Old Route 22) one afternoon last November.
The most serious of the charges he faces is a misdemeanor count of reckless endangerment. He also was slapped with five summary offenses, all hunting law violations, including hunting without a license, shooting on or across highways and unlawful killing or taking of big game.
“Obviously, we can’t have someone running through a Walmart parking lot shooting at a deer,” said Jack Lucas, the wildlife conservation officer who investigated the incident.
But the one thing Bianco does not stand accused of is hunting out of season — the incident reportedly took place on Nov. 26, the first day of antlered deer season with regular firearms.
On that day, Bianco had driven to the Burrell Township shopping plaza to do some banking, Lucas said.
It was around 2:10 p.m. that Bianco spotted the buck running through the parking lot from the cab of his pickup truck, Lucas said.
And it apparently was some buck. Ten points, if memory serves, Lucas said.
The deer ran around a corner of the store, and Bianco hopped out of the truck, gun in hand, and “began firing multiple rounds at the deer,” Lucas wrote in charging documents.
“The defendant pursued the deer through the parking lot and across Old William Penn Highway, where he killed the deer. The defendant then loaded the deer into his vehicle and took it to a meat processor for butchering,” he said.
Luckily no one was injured (other than the deer).
(a related article)
UPDATE (5/6/13): When Bianco did the shooting in the Walmart parking lot, he fired and hit the deer using a handgun, when the deer was next to a tractor-trailer that had people in it unloading goods at the time. The deer then dropped across the road in the yard of a woman's home. He put all of these people in danger, yet blithely contends that he shouldn't be charged since he didn't know the people were there. From an article:
At the hearing, employee Domenick Hewitt testified he was loading the trailers when he saw Bianco's pickup stop abruptly in the lot then speedily reverse toward the side of the store.
"After the truck stopped, I saw this guy jump out, and he started running along the side of the store, where the trailers were, and he pulled out a handgun and fired two shots at the deer," Hewitt said. "At first I didn't know what he was doing."
Blood smears found on a trailer showed the deer was nearby when Bianco fired, Wildlife Conservation Officer Jack Lucas testified.
Defense attorney Jason Huska argued the reckless endangerment charge was unwarranted because he contends Bianco couldn't have known any workers were in the trailers when he fired.
But Indiana County Assistant District Attorney Jay Carmella said it didn't matter whether Bianco saw the workers in the trailers, and said there were also many people in the parking lot and noted the woman who owned the home where the deer finally dropped also came out of her home.
"He had to know there was a risk of firing a gun there," Carmella said. The district judge agreed in ordering Bianco to stand trial.
Walmart. Save money. Die faster.
UPDATE (10/22/13): The shooter was sentenced only to probation for his crime:
Bianco was not required to make a plea under the ARD program for first-time, nonviolent offenders. He can have his arrest record expunged upon successful completion of the probation period if he stays out of trouble.
In addition to serving six months of probation, he was ordered by Indiana Judge William J. Martin to pay $900 in costs, $180 in probation supervision fees and serve 20 hours of community service..
