Man mistakes woman for deer and shots are fired

Wednesday was a typical afternoon, but an exciting one — Thanksgiving was the next day, and Jamie Billquist and his wife, Rosemary, would partake in one of their favorite traditions: the Turkey Trot.
Rosemary Billquist, 43, got home from work about 5 p.m., and left shortly after to walk the couple’s dogs, Stella and Sugar, near the field behind their Sherman, N.Y., house. Jamie Billquist, 47, stayed at home, watching television.
A little while later, the dogs came racing to the back of the house, barking loudly. Billquist panicked. He tried calling Rosemary’s cellphone but she didn’t pick up.
“I thought, ‘Something might’ve happened to Rosemary,’ ” he said. “Maybe she fell.”
As he put his phone down, ambulances showed up outside the house. An EMT who is a friend of Billquist’s rushed to the field, saying someone had been shot.
Moments later, Billquist learned that it was his wife.
A neighbor, Thomas B. Jadlowski, thought he saw a deer in his back yard 200 yards away and fired a single shot. Then he heard a scream. Realizing he’d shot a person, he ran out to help, said Chautauqua County Sheriff’s Office officials in a news release.
Jadlowski, 34, called 911 and applied pressure to Rosemary Billquist’s wound until paramedics arrived, according to the sheriff’s office. The bullet had traveled through her hip and out her back, Billquist said. Billquist rode with his wife to UPMC Hamot in Erie, Pa., where she was pronounced dead.
“That’s it,” Billquist said with a heavy sigh. “My life has changed. Things are never gonna be the same.”
Jadlowski has not been charged and has been cooperating with investigators, officials said. The case will be reviewed by the Chautauqua County District Attorney’s Office, which will determine whether Jadlowski will face criminal charges. Officials said the shooting occurred less than an hour after sunset, when it’s illegal to hunt.
Sheriff Joe Gerace said that Jadlowski used a single-shot handgun permissible for deer hunting.
Dale Dunkelberger, master instructor for firearms for the state Department of Environmental Conservation’s hunter education program, that shooting after hours and not identifying a target correctly is dangerous.
“Hunters have to understand there are other people using trails, using parks in areas where we as sportsmen hunt,” said Dunkelberger, who called Sherman his old hunting “stomping ground.”
“In this case, it appears from what I gathered this was after sunset, and he shouldn’t have been out there hunting after sunset. You’re done. That’s the law.”
Jadlowski could not be immediately reached for comment.
Jamie Billquist still has many questions about the shooting.
“I’m not a hunter but the law is that (after sunset) is when you’re supposed to be done,” Billquist said. “Supposedly it was 200 yards away. He thought it was a deer, which is hard for me to believe. If you don’t know what it is, why shoot?”
Now, Billquist is unsure how to move on without his wife. The holidays were always a celebratory time for them, as their birthdays were both in January, right after Christmas. They’d been together for 27 years, ever since they met at the Chautauqua Mall in Lakewood, N.Y., in 1990.
“I thought she was a beautiful person, something drew me to her,” Billquist said of that day with a laugh. “We’ve been together ever since . . . we decided years ago we didn’t want kids. Just free spirits, I guess. Kind of enjoying life and having fun.”
The couple moved to Sherman in 2002, as Rosemary Billquist wanted to return to the town where she grew up. They rebuilt her family’s house on Armenian Road, which was significant to Rosemary Billquist, who had Armenian roots.
She was an avid runner who competed in marathons and triathlons. The Billquists had planned to run in the YMCA Buffalo Niagara Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving morning.
That morning, Jamie Billquist opened up Facebook, which sent him a reminder of the photos he took with his wife at last year’s event. He wore a pointy Santa hat; she wore a giant grin.
Instead, Billquist spent Thanksgiving planning his wife’s services, wondering how to best commemorate her.
“We always had fun. Just together, or with the dogs. There were so many thousands and thousands of fun stories,” he said.
Like the time Rosemary Billquist went out on her lunch break while working at WCA Hospital in Jamestown, N.Y., and saw a man struggling to stand in the hospital parking lot as he waited for a ride. So she decided to install a bench in front of the hospital. She etched a quote onto it: “In a world where you can be anything . . . be kind.”
Billquist remembers hauling the bench into their car and planting it in front of the hospital. He was in his work clothes and she wore a dress, he said.
He remembers her coming home from work some days, exclaiming, “Three more people sat on that bench!”
“She was a private person. She did things from the heart. She didn’t want people saying ‘Oh, good job,’ that just wasn’t like her,” he said.
Now, the bench is covered with tea lights and flowers.
Dozens of friends and family gathered for a vigil Thursday, singing and praying. Billquist posted a video on Facebook, and wrote that the vigil “took his breath away.”
“She touched a lot of lives, she did,” he said, recalling how his wife would go out of her way to say hello to people at the hospital, “just to brighten up their day for a second.”
“She was definitely an angel. That’s for sure.”

Cop who shot 17 times at stolen car full of teens faces sentencing

The former Chicago police officer who fired several shots into a stolen car full of teenagers four years ago has been sentenced to five years in prison.

U.S. District Court Judge Gary Feinerman on Monday said while Marco Proano m ay have been wearing a police uniform at the time of the shooting, he was the one bringing the chaos and violence.
Proano fired 16 shots at the car carrying six African-Americans in December 2013, authorities said. Two were wounded as the car sped away from him. The shooting was caught on video and became the centerpiece at Proano's trial.
His defense attorney painted Proano as a victim of growing anti-police sentiment and asked for supervised release. Proano told the judge he didn't set out that night to hurt anyone.
In August, jurors found Proano guilty of two civil-rights violations. Prosecutors maintained Proano used unreasonable force.
The 42-year-old former officer is expected to report for federal prison in January. He has a wife and three children.

Woman found dead, grandson is suspect

The body of a Florida grandmother reported missing Wednesday along with her teen grandson is believed to have been found in a shallow grave in the backyard of her son's home, police announced Friday.The 15-year-old grandson, Logan Mott, remains missing and is considered a person of interest in the death of the person believed to be Kristina French, 53, Jacksonville Sheriff's Office director Ron Lendvay said Friday. Surveillance video leads investigators to believe Mott is still alive and is driving French's car, a silver Dodge Dart with Florida tags DLLT42.
On Wednesday, the teen and his grandmother were supposed to pick up his father and the father's girlfriend at the airport, who were flying back to the Jacksonville area after a vacation. When they didn't show up, the couple took an Uber back to their Neptune Beach home to find it ransacked with the door open and guns missing from a gun safe.
Neptune Beach Police and the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office, where Mott's father works as a corrections officer, launched an investigation. Lendvay said investigators uncovered evidence of foul play and "possible criminal violence" inside the home, and later uncovered the buried remains that appear to be consistent with French. The remains have not been officially identified.
Lendvay said authorities are in the process of obtaining an arrest warrant for Mott on auto theft charges. He said police want to interview Mott to find out what happened in the home.
Mott had been the subject of a missing child alert issued by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. His mother Carrie Campbell-Mott had issued a plea for his return, telling media outlets he was insulin-dependent and didn't know whether he had his insulin with him.
Lendvay said investigators now believe he is in possession of his insulin packs.
Campbell-Mott, who lives in Missouri, told WJAX that Logan's father, who is her ex-husband and French's son, last heard from French via text on Tuesday when she confirmed she would pick him up at the airport the following day.
She the station that the last time she spoke to her son was Sunday night, and everything seemed fine.
Lendvay said that because guns were taken from the home, anyone who sees Mott or the car should use extreme caution and call 911. Mott should be considered armed and dangerous, he said.