Thread: Animal Cruelty?? Karma has it's way...

Teen blinded by 'potato gun' misfire

04/15/2003

By DONNA FIELDER / Denton Record-Chronicle

A Denton teenager was in critical condition Monday after he was shot in the face with a frog that exploded from a "potato gun."

Daniel Benjamin Berry, 17, was taken to John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth early Sunday after he looked down the gun's PVC pipe barrel
and was struck in the face by the frog.

"He is going to be blind in both eyes," Daniel's mother, Lisa Berry, said in the hospital's critical-care waiting room.

A potato gun is usually made with a PVC pipe with one end sealed. A potato or another object is wedged into the open end. Flammable liquid
such as hairspray is put into a sealed chamber in the device and ignited.

Sunday's accident occurred about 1 a.m. in the Copper Canyon area. Denton County Sheriff's Department spokesman Kevin Patton said three
teenagers took the gun and potatoes to the bridge.

"At some point, someone decided to fire frogs from the gun," he said. "And at some point, the gun misfired."

A crowd of teenagers had gathered to watch, the sheriff's spokesman said.

"Mr. Berry was a spectator. He walked over to try to help with the misfire," Mr. Patton said. "He looked down the barrel, and the gun fired
on a delayed reaction."

He was taken to a hospital emergency room and was later transferred to the Fort Worth hospital, Mr. Patton said.

Mrs. Berry said she couldn't understand why the illegal weapons are available on the Internet.

"Some other kid ordered one over the Internet," she said. "They thought it was a toy. It's not a toy; it's a dangerous weapon."

Daniel's mother said her son had broken bones in his face and would require surgery. He told her he didn't think there was a frog in the gun
and looked to try to see it.

"He said it just went off. It was a misfire. It hit him square in the face," she said.

Mr. Patton said no charges would be filed.

"This is the first incident involving a potato gun that we have had to deal with," Mr. Patton said. "We had six teenagers in possession of a
potato gun, and one of them was critically injured.

"What are you going to do? This was an accident."

Mrs. Berry said she didn't blame the other boys. They did not know the power of the gun, she said.

Daniel had wanted to join the Air Force but she would not give her permission, she said. She encouraged him to attend college until he was
old enough to join without parental consent.

"All he ever wanted to do was be an Air Force pilot," she said. "That isn't going to happen now."

Hubby told me about this the other day. Sad this boy will be blind, but also sad this boy & his friends thought that killing frogs was a form of entertainment...

Copied from this website, also you can read an update on the boy - http://www.spudtech.com/content.asp?id=16

And frogs everywhere are rejoicing

Mrs. Berry said she couldn't understand why the illegal weapons are available on the Internet.

and I can't understand why kids are torturing animals, either. You can make a potato gun with stuff you have in your house, you don't need to buy it over the net.

Originally posted by redrig
And frogs everywhere are rejoicing

I don't know why but that statement cracked me up! LOL

Aw, that poor kid.

Originally posted by reneep45
as*hole !!!!!!!!!!! you need your as* kicked ,

Pretty harsh words. I'm sure the teen learned a very valuable lesson. It didn't sound like to me he was the one using frogs. He was checking to see if a frog was in the potatoe gun and it misfired. I personally hope the teen will be ok. His life is forever changed from this

Originally posted by mesue
Maybe I'm misreading but this does not sound like the kid was taking part in this and was looking to see if there was a frog in the gun who knows maybe he was going to try and rescue it.

He was watching all the other boys doing this, when the gun didn't go off he checked to see if maybe the frog had hopped out. If he was really trying to save the frog then he would have stopped them from doing this in the first place. No he wasn't the one loading the launcher or firing it, but he was still watching them shoot the frogs out all the other times.