by Shawn Skipper - Wednesday, April 10, 2013
Everyone's had it happen to them: You're out running errands or taking care of a chore in the backyard, and a whitetail (sometimes even a trophy-caliber one) casually crosses your path. Those things have a habit of showing up in the darnedest of places.
Given that most people are law-abiding citizens, there's not much to do about it but shake your head and mutter in frustration. Emphasis on the "most." Some folks, well... they make decisions that leave you questioning their brain cell count. Like Arcangelo Bianco, Jr., who, according to CBS Pittsburgh, was just charged with opening fire on a whitetail in a Wal-Mart parking lot last November.
According to the report, the 40-year-old Bianco, Jr. was sitting in his truck within the Burrell Township, Pa., store's parking lot when a 10-point whitetail darted around the corner of the building. Bianco then allegedly left his vehicle, carrying an undisclosed handgun, and began firing at the deer. It bolted for the highway, and he pursued on foot.
As you might imagine, Bianco's fellow shoppers were more than a little taken aback. Local police immediately began receiving calls about a man running through the Walmart parking lot, gun in hand.
Upon investigation, officials have charged Bianco with a misdemeanor count of reckless endangerment, as well as several hunting violations—including hunting without a license. That might be the most baffling revelation—even if you throw out everything else this guy allegedly did... he wasn't even a licensed hunter to begin with. He shouldn't even have been thinking about shooting the deer, regardless of where might have been.
Bianco's attorney has said that they won't be making any comment regarding the allegations in the criminal complaint, and that his client has denied any wrongdoing. The pair will face, among other things, a surveillance video from the parking lot that's currently being examined by the authorities.
I'm not sure what they'll try to argue, but, hey, I'm no lawyer. Maybe they can claim it was self-defense. Those whitetails can be menaces, or so I hear. Suffice to say; I doubt the prosecution will "rollback" any of the charges in this one.
