Hunting organizer and Danish hunter charged in man's death in hunt
The Kołobrzeg prosecutor's office has completed the investigation into the fatal shooting of a man during a hunt and has filed an indictment against the organizer of the hunt and the Danish hunter, announced prosecutor Ryszard Gąsiorowski from the District Prosecutor's Office in Koszalin on Wednesday.
A collective hunt for wild boars was organized for 16 Danish hunters on November 10, 2019 in the forests of the Gościno forest district in West Pomerania, in the area of operation of the local hunting club. Andrzej K., 47, a resident of Kołobrzeg County, who was driving game to the hunters' stands, was fatally shot. The bullet hit him in the chest, causing death, which was confirmed by an autopsy conducted at the Pomeranian Medical University in Szczecin.
More than five and a half years after the investigation was initiated, the District Prosecutor’s Office in Kołobrzeg filed an indictment with the district court against the organizer and leader of the hunt, gamekeeper Mieczysław S., and one of the Danish hunters, Henrik B.
A Danish citizen is to stand trial on charges of causing a man's death by negligence. The investigation found that he failed to exercise due caution when firing a shotgun at game that was several meters away, when the beater was about 50 meters away, and should have been no less than 100 meters away. The bullet hit the victim in the chest, and according to experts, it was not a ricochet. The man died at the scene.
Mieczysław S. is charged with exposing eight people from the hunt and two dog handlers to direct danger of loss of life or serious bodily harm and unintentionally causing the death of one of them. As indicated by prosecutor Gąsiorowski, he was to allow the hunters to fire a shot in a forested area and at a distance shorter than the required minimum of 100 m from the beaters. As a result, one of them was fatally shot.
Both suspects pleaded not guilty to the charges brought against them.
"Henrik B. claims in his explanations that he fired the shot after the hunt manager, Mieczysław S., had given his consent, but he denied giving such consent. As he claims, he did not encourage the hunters to shoot at all. At some point, he heard the shot and when he ran to the scene, the injured party was already dead. Henrik B. and Mieczysław S. gave contradictory explanations, even mutually exclusive. Now all these doubts must be resolved by the court," said prosecutor Gąsiorowski.
Both defendants face up to five years in prison. Neither has been placed on remand.
The District Prosecutor's Office in Kołobrzeg presented charges against Mieczysław S. and Henrik B. in May 2021, and the Danish citizen heard them and was questioned as a suspect under international legal assistance many months later. Legal assistance was also renewed for procedural reasons. The prosecutor conducting the investigation also changed.
During the investigation, expert opinions were obtained, among others, in the field of forensics, ballistics. Specialists, who were given the secured weapon used in the hunt and the bullet found in the beater's body, identified the one from which the fatal shot was fired. As a result, its user was identified.
To conclude the proceedings, investigators needed a new, key expert opinion on the organization of hunting, because the one obtained by the prosecutor's office after the investigation had started was prepared at a stage when the Danish hunter did not yet have the status of a suspect. Unfortunately, as prosecutor Gąsiorowski explained in an interview with PAP in April this year, it cannot be evidence in the case. The expert in the case had to speak again. He maintained his earlier conclusions indicating irregularities in the organization of the hunt.
The 47-year-old who was fatally shot had previously taken part in hunts as a beater. The Danish hunters were sober.
Kurier Szczecinski
