butt-lake-ore-rifle-shooting

On October 12, at 8 p.m., a convicted felon ambushed a couple at their campsite near Butte Falls in Oregon. The attacker, Dick Laurence Zoomer Daniels, had a history with the woman, Mariah Silviera. There was a dispute about the ownership of a truck that was parked at the camp site.

Daniels had been dropped off at the site by a different female friend. He set up a hide overlooking the site.  When the sheriffs department investigated, they found a scoped .243 bolt action rifle there.

Fate intervened. The couple, Mariah Silveria and Shane Young, returned after dark.  Sunset on October 12th was at 6:34 p.m. A nearly full moon was up, so there was some light.

Mariah Silviera exited the truck on the passenger side. Daniels left the rifle and used a pistol and a flashlight. Daniels pointed the .40 caliber S&W 4006 alternatively at Shane and Mariah. He fired at Shane. Shane exited the truck and ran around it, using it as cover and concealment.

As Shane circled the truck, Daniels fired at him several times, searching for him with the flashlight. Daniels mounted the rear bumper to gain a better field of fire. Shane had a rifle in the truck, an AR15 clone made by Good Times Outdoors.

As Shane hid in the darkness near the open passenger door, Mariah managed to reach the .223 rifle and pass it to Shane.  Shane fired at Daniels, hitting him twice and killing him.From mailtribune.com:

Police said Young and Silveria returned to their campsite in a truck about 8 p.m. Oct. 12, and Daniels stepped out of the woods from his hiding spot with a flashlight. Silveria exited the passenger side of the vehicle and heard Daniels threaten Young. Daniels fired a shot at Young then chased him around the vehicle, squeezing off several shots.

Daniels reportedly stood on the truck’s rear bumper, pointing the flashlight around to try and find Young, who was crouched next to the open passenger door. Police said Silveria reached into the vehicle’s cab, retrieved Young’s .223 rifle and handed it to Young as he hid. Young fired twice, hitting Daniels in the chest and right shoulder.

The District Attorney concluded that the shooting was justified on Wednesday, November 9th, 2016. In a video interview, Shane said that he had to do what he did in defense of himself and Mariah. He added the following [via kdrv.com]:

“My mama didn’t raise no fool, my mama didn’t raise no coward.”

Shane might have ran off into the dark woods. But what about Mariah? Would it have been right for her to have run, leaving him there? It’s not clear if Daniels identified himself. He was in the dark, behind a flashlight.

Daniels was a prohibited possessor. He had spent time in prison for manslaughter. He had killed a friend, shooting at people who were fighting with the friend. He was already a prohibited possessor when that happened in 2005.  From mailtribune.com,10 years ago:

The man charged with fatally wounding a friend and dumping him in a hospital parking lot Wednesday faces additional allegations that he recklessly endangered two other people with a gun.

Dick Laurence Zoomer Daniels, 21, appeared in Jackson County Circuit Court Thursday in connection with the shooting death of Jeremiah Lee Coughtry, 30, of Butte Falls. In addition to charging Daniels with first-degree manslaughter, prosecutors allege that he recklessly endangered two other men during a Tuesday night fight by firing a gun in their direction.

Here is an account that shows more details, and mentions the dispute over the vehicle. From kobi5.com:

The district attorney’s office said Daniels aimed a flashlight at Silveria and Young as he approached the vehicle they were in. Daniels was also carrying a pistol and fired a shot toward Young, who exited the vehicle, only to be chased by Daniels.

Another four or five rounds were shot as Daniels chased Young around the vehicle. Silveria then reached into the vehicle’s cab, grabbed a rifle, and handed it to Young–who was hiding behind the passenger side door. Young fired two rounds that struck Daniels in the upper chest and shoulder. Daniels was confirmed deceased when paramedics arrived on scene.

During the investigation, it was revealed that Silveria and Daniels were in a dispute over ownership of a truck that was found at the campsite.

Maybe Shane did not know the history of Mariah’s former boyfriend. If he had, it would’ve been wise to have a pistol on his person.

Daniels had a way with women. A female friend, perhaps the one who dropped him off at the camp site, with the rifle and pistol, said that he was a gentle person who would not hurt anyone.

A source at the Jackson County Sheriffs department believed the .223 would be returned to Shane Young, as he was not a prohibited possessor.

©2016 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included. Link to Gun Watch

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42 COMMENTS

  2. I never cease to be amazed at the level of stupid in our world. Boggles the mind, of course it doesn’t take much to boggle my small mind. RIP Darwin.

  3. Crazy. DGU with “assault weapons” does exist! I almost started believing the antigunners before this…..;-)

  6. Poor little Zoomer. He went from being a reckless killer to trying to become a full-fledged premeditated murderer.

    Yes, I guess you could say that he was in the process of changing his life around.

  7. For all the doubters about the lethality of the 5.56 rifle, chalk one up for the AR! (to be clear, the Armalite Rifle)!

    • Neat they let you search that database by “defensive use”.
      Double neat that it returns 18 pages of results.
      Triple neat that with an anti tracker listing 18 pages of defensive uses Shannon still says they don’t exist.

      • Quadruple neat that those 18 pages only go back to August 20th, meaning there’s another 7 1/2 months worth of DGUs for 2016 that aren’t shown.

        Thanks for your interest in our statistics! Unfortunately, we must limit result sets for the general queries.

    • He’s got a fund set up for his funeral on “GoFundMe”, and listed as a victim there too. The only people contributing are girls. He must have had a dick a lot larger than his brain.

        • Our delightful Portland “campers” are more into shooting up heroin, stealing bikes and cars, and pooping on sidewalks. Campsite-attempted-murder-turned-shootout over a truck and yer womern, that’s straight-up Jackson County tweaker behavior. It’s funny how obnoxiously far left Portland and the college towns lean, considering how much of the rest of the state is basically equal parts “Deliverance” and “Squidbillies”.

          Pretty much the best possible outcome in this scenario, though.

  10. This is physically impossible the guy who was killed was totally innocent because there was no way he could have had a gun. It is against the law afterall! He was railroaded on the first manslaughter charge for the same reson.

  11. That truck gun should have been locked in a secure case, bolt removed, stored separately from the ammo, and encoded to one person’s palm print, or it wouldn’t fire.

    For safety. Not, of course, the safety of the people alive right now because they could #shootback. But, they don’t count.

    And people wonder why Trump won.

    As there is a near-infinite density among the anti’s, I’ll spell it out: when the “basket of deplorables” figure out that you don’t care if they get killed to advance your policy agenda, they tend to vote for anybody other than you. Calling them “irredeemable” doesn’t help. The repeated example of your indifference to inner city free fire zones wherever the candidate’s policies have been put into practice suggests the same.

    If you relentlessly wish people dead, and implement policies that make that more likely, eventually they figure out that electing you may not be in their interest.

  12. I’m “a gentle person who would not hurt anyone.” Don’t believe me? Come on, honey, let’s not turn this rape into a murder.

  14. “Zoomer” was on his way home from choir practice and heard that a Bible study was being held in the area. He wanted to discuss the eighth commandment (Thou shalt not steal for the heathens out there) with the other players, and complain that he never had a puppy when he was attacked.

  16. The story takes on a surreal yet celebratory tone with the addition of the “dancing denim pants” embedded ad…

  21. “squeezing off several shots.” Funny, right there, describing proper trigger control as part of the story. LOL

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