Criminal charges coming in hunting accident

An upstate prosecutor announced on Jan. 13 that he will pursue criminal charges against a man who accidentally shot and killed a Malverne firefighter, while hunting deer in November, in about two months.

Charles Bruce, Sr., 52, a 17-year member of the Malverne Fire Department, died at the scene of a hunting accident on Nov. 16, State Police reported, after sustaining one shot to the chest from a high-powered .44-caliber rifle. The accident occurred in a wooded area of a privately owned property in the Town of Westford, Ostego County District Attorney John Muehl said.

After an earlier investigation, Muehl said, police determined that the shooter had mistaken Bruce for a deer at the time of the accident.

Malverne fire department spokesman Dave Gildea told the Herald in November that Bruce had left for a hunting trip that weekend with several other men he knew from the department, including the suspected shooter.

The shooter, a member of the MFD for more than 10 years, whose name has yet to be released, told police he shot Bruce from about 40 yards away while perched in a tree, Muehl said.

Muehl said the men on the hunting trip, including Bruce and the suspected shooter, were not wearing any protective gear or orange safety jackets, and not under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

Muehl will ask the grand jury to consider charges of criminally negligent homicide, which warrant a maximum sentence of four years in prison, in about six to ten weeks.

He added that this case presents at least evidence of negligence because he said he’s “never seen a man look like a deer.”

“The first thing that you’re taught when you take hunting safety courses is never, ever shoot unless you know what you’re shooting at,” Muehl said. “And he obviously didn’t, otherwise he wouldn’t have shot anybody.”