November 29, 2011
By Blake Herzog, MyDesert.com
Coachella A 14-year-old Coachella boy killed in a hunting
accident over Thanksgiving weekend was shot by his teenage cousin, a
relative said Monday.
Isreal Delatorre of Coachella died Saturday afternoon after he
was unintentionally shot on Little Thomas Mountain Road near Garner
Valley, according to the Riverside County Sheriff's Department.
The fatal shot was fired by another 14-year-old boy the son of
local hunting safety instructor Guillermo Delatorre who was with
the two boys on a deer hunt.
Isreal is the instructor's nephew.
It is hard for me to explain to a father that his kid is dead,
when I had him, he said, choking up. He declined to give his own
son's name.
Isreal got caught up in the moment of seeing his first deer,
Delatorre said.
I told (Isreal) to stay right here, and he didn't. It all
happened so fast seconds.
He's been replaying the accident in his head.
I don't know what I could have done different, he said. I know
100 percent deep in my conscience that kid knew what to do, and my
son knew what to do.
I don't know why he got in front.
Delatorre said he's been teaching gun safety classes since the
1990s, and has been doing it full time the past few years.
His nephew had gone through all 30 hours of hunter education
training in classes he taught, and then volunteered to help him in
further classes.
He loved it, he said. He was very passionate about it.
Derek Fong, president of the Hunter Education Instructor
Association of Southern California, said adult supervision is key
when dealing with young hunters, with preferably at least one adult
per child.
How do you do that? How do you control two 14-year-olds? Fong
asked.
In 2007, the most recent statistics available, there were 239
hunting accidents, according to the International Hunter Education
Association, which covers mainly the United States and Canada.
Nineteen were fatal.
Michigan and Ohio had the most accidents, with 33 and 30,
respectively.
Before 1953, when California instituted mandatory hunter
education, the state had 30 to 50 hunter fatalities per year,
according to Patrick Foy, a game warden and hunter education
instructor with the California Department of Fish and Game.
After education was required, the deaths dropped dramatically, he
said. In the past 20 to 30 years, the average is one or two per
year.
Hunting accidents happen more with adults than juveniles, Foy
said. Young hunters generally have just taken hunter education
classes.
Sheriff's department spokesperson Cpl. Courtney Donowho said the
department has ruled the shooting as accidental, not a criminal
matter, and would not be releasing any more information out of
respect for the family.
In addition to hunting, Isreal was an excellent soccer player who
would charge his father $20 per goal scored, his uncle said.
I know he's up there right now bugging people, Delatorre said.
I know he's charging them for goals, or asking them to take him on
hunting trips.
They got their hands full with that little guy.
