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A Florida deputy has been charged with manslaughter after shooting and killing his girlfriend, 25-year-old Polina Wright, in what he alleges to be an accident while cleaning guns. The incident which took place on the night of Thursday, Sept. 19, unfolded after the Marion County Sheriff’s Deputy called 9-1-1 to report the shooting.

“I know this looks really bad. I told her I did not want this to happen,” said Leslie Boileau to authorities when they arrived at his home. According to a news release from the Ocala Police Department, Boileau stated during questioning that the shooting was “accidental,” and that it occurred as he and his girlfriend were “handling and dry-firing the firearms.”

Boileau told authorities that the two had come home from dinner and opened a recently ordered package of gun cleaning supplies, which is when his girlfriend asked him to show her how to clean a gun. Later reports expanded upon the statement as it appears the couple had also been drinking, indicating that they had each consumed three margaritas.

Boileau stated he was demonstrating how to disassemble and clean a 9mm handgun and an AR-style rifle. For some unknown reason, he claims the two pointed the guns at each other.

According to an arrest report obtained by FOX 13, he “grabbed the rifle and dry-fired it one time.” In a subsequent dry-fire attempt, Boileau states that he forgot he had “placed the loaded magazine into the rifle” which discharged a round into Wright’s forehead.

“Upon arrival, officers found the victim with a fatal gunshot wound to her forehead. A 9mm handgun was observed on the victim’s lap, and a rifle was also present at the scene,” the news release states. 

A search warrant executed at the residence by the Ocala Police Department revealed physical evidence that corroborated Boileau’s account.

“In light of these findings, Leslie Boileau has been arrested for manslaughter for his role in the fatal shooting,” according to the department’s news release. Boileau is being held in the Marion County Jail without bond and was “immediately terminated” from the department after having served eight years as a deputy sheriff. The Sheriff’s office has confirmed the gun used in the fatal incident was not his service firearm.

“We are heartbroken for the family and friends of the victim. Tens of thousands of law enforcement officers do their job commendably every day. But unfortunately, the tragic actions of just one are felt through the entire law enforcement community. The Ocala Police Department has the support of my office as they continue to finish their investigation of this tragic incident,” says Marion County Sheriff Billy Woods.

Ocala Police Chief Mike Balken also expressed condolences to the victim’s family and loved ones, stating that the “Ocala Police Department is working with the State Attorney’s Office to ensure justice is served.”

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42 COMMENTS

    • And that “professionalism” goes out the window when alcohol is involved.

      To quote Henry Cavill in the show The Witcher: F-CK

  3. “It can never happen to me, because I am superior to those other people.”

    “I’m state certified”

  5. Come home after dinner and drinks with your 25yo piece and the best you can think to do is start cleaning guns?

  6. Accident? Why am I not buying this? (Maybe because I had a consult with an individual whose .357 discharged while he was cleaning it–right into the back of his wife’s head. That she had filed for divorce lead the police to suspect that it was not accident.)

      • Well .40, we meet again. (LoL)
        Third “accidental “ discharge within a week.
        (Although they did call the SS agent’s wound an ND.)
        I’m thinking this wasn’t an accident nor an ND. I’m also thinking the sheriffs’ dept probably just wants this to go away as fast as possible.

    • “Shot himself while cleaning his gun,” especially in the context of police officers, was basically always a cover term for suicides. I don’t know anyone who would act this stupid even drunk, so this sounds a lot like the same thing, but to cover a murder.

    • Total accident. Negligence ,but total accident. What reason would this ole boy have to murder his girlfriend? Drop the charges and cut him loose.

  8. Uhh no. This was not manslaughter. Im always skeptical of the “gun cleaning” suicides and shootings and this one smells funny to me.

    • Indeed.
      According to an arrest report obtained by FOX 13, he “grabbed the rifle and dry-fired it one time.” In a subsequent dry-fire attempt, Boileau states that he forgot he had “placed the loaded magazine into the rifle” which discharged a round into Wright’s forehead.

      So he dry fires the AR, then “forgets that he inserted a magazine, pulls the charging handle and presses the trigger”, resulting in a clean head shot.

    • I’ve heard of so many “accidents” when guns are being “cleaned” anyone would think guns are at their most dangerous during cleaning.

      Although I think many of these incidents are not accidents.

    • “Im always skeptical of the “gun cleaning” suicides”

      You should be. Over 48% of so called ‘ruled gun suicide’ turn out later in re-examination to have been staged murder but the numbers are never removed from the lists of suicides. Heck, the determination of suicide is so messed up that even drug overdose suicides get ruled a gun suicide because a gun was nearby to use in case the drug overdose didn’t work but the gun was never used because the drug overdose did work. The gun suicide numbers are falsely inflated.

  11. This sounds like intentional murder, not negligent drunken manslaughter to me. Three drinks would barely give me a little buzz (and I generally don’t even drink). He shot her in the forehead with a 5.56 rifle, for goodness sake! That’s insane. I suspect his cop buddies are trying to go easy on him. Yes, I know it is a different department but I bet they still know him. I’ve been to Ocala,and Marion county. It isn’t huge.

  15. Sounds like dumb and dumber and dumber lived…Thanks dumber for making all gun owners look like accidents waiting to happen and in need of cackles coming into their homes to verify their firearm storage is in order…Sieg Heil.

  17. Well, if it is not “accidental”, the deputy is too dumb to be in charge of anything. This guy thought that if he claimed “accident”, he would not be investigated and charged. That idea (that he could go free) is just stupid. If he murdered his honey, after deciding that jail time for manslaughter was a fair trade for divesting of a life partner, he is even more stupid.

    But no one ever said criminals are smart.

  18. This reminds me of the case of Sergeant Gomez of the Portland Police Bureau. The police arrived at the house to find Sergeant Gomez’ wife, nude and laying on a blood soaked bed. The officers observed that Mrs Gomez had a singular entry wound “in the area of the right buttocks.”. None of the neighbors in the apartment building has heard a gunshot. Sergeant Gomez explained that he had neglected to unload his 12 gauge shotgun before “playing around with it”. The responding officers made no arrest because they “saw no evidence of domestic violence.”. The District Attorney concurred with their assessment.

    Amazingly; Mrs Gomez actually survived although she required 50 units of blood at the ER. She lost a leg, her reproductive tract, her rectum, her bladder and other internal injuries.

    No one is willing to speculate on exactly what Sergeant Gomez was doing with the shotgun. My helpful suggestion that the Portland Police department implement a program to distribute Kevlar condoms to their officers so that they can practice safe shotgun sex was not appreciated.

  22. He gets to re-live this every day for the rest of his stupid life – watching his girlfriend’s head explode right in front of him by his own hand.

  23. gunpowder and alcohol besides not tasting good are a dangerous mixture.
    Just a hunch here but for some reason I doubt the accident claim.
    I’ve cleaned a variety of firearms thousands of times in my lifetime. Have yet to have one discharge while being cleaned. Am I doing something wrong or do I have defective firearms?

  24. Yeah BS. A cop here in Spokane Valley said the same thing when he shot his wife while cleaning his gun He was tried and convicted. That was on January 18, 2016 in Spokane, Washington. His name was Dwayne Thurman.

    I always called bullshit on any notion of him cleaning his gun and NOT having it pointed in a safe direction,

    • Apparently, the method to clean a gun with a “clean a gun with a bolt and cartridge in the way” is you put a loaded magazine in the gun and chamber a round with your girl friend in front of the gun and pull the trigger.

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