KELSEY CARTER - 16 yo (2010)- Enumclaw (E of Tacoma) WA

ENUMCLAW, Wash. -- Christy Doll's eyes are filled with tears of agony.

"I'm hurt," she said.

Her beloved daughter, Kelsey Carter, died in a house near Cumberland from a gunshot.



"I know this isn't an accident. I know there was more to it," said Doll. "Because I feel it."

Doll says Carter dropped out of school and ran away three months ago with her 25-year-old boyfriend. Her mother reported her missing to Enumclaw police. Doll found out her daughter was visiting at the house Saturday.

"I was sitting across the street when I saw her and I called 911," she said. "The cops went up to the house and talked to the boyfriend."

King County deputies say he and two other men didn't let them inside to look for Carter and then told investigators she wasn't there. A couple hours later, investigators say her boyfriend and another man dropped her off at a nearby hospital.

"The phone rang at 8:26. The Enumclaw Emergency Center had called and said my daughter had been shot," Doll said.

Carter didn't make it.

Homeowner Josh Wilson confirms Carter and her boyfriend came to the house that day.

"They were downstairs. I was cutting a friend's hair at the moment," Wilson said. "I heard an explosion. I ran downstairs, and my friend said, 'Oh my God, I shot Kelsey.'"

Detectives say it's possible the shooting was an accident. They're trying to figure out exactly what happened.

Meantime, Doll is awaiting answers as she grieves for her daughter.

No one has been arrested in the case. Anyone with information on the case is urged to contact the King County Sheriff's Office.

http://www.komonews.com/news/local/111823869.html

July 21st, 2011


A Kent man arrested Tuesday in the shooting death of a 16-year-old runaway girl has been charged with manslaughter.
Filing charges Thursday, King County prosecutors contend James T.
Radtke recklessly caused the death of Kelsey Carter on Dec. 11 when he
accidentally shot her in the chest.
Radtke, jailed on $100,000 bail, is accused of shooting Carter while
trying to reposition a holstered revolver. Carter had been reported
missing two months before and was apparently living at a Cumberland home
also occupied by Radtke.
Carter was shot at a home in the 33900 block of Southeast Green River
Headworks Road outside of Enumclaw. Radtke and another man living in
the home took Carter to Enumclaw Community Hospital by truck, but the
girl had died by the time they arrived at 8:20 p.m.
The girl's mother, Christy Doll, called 911 earlier on Dec. 11 to
report that her daughter was with Radtke, according to the Sheriff's
Office statement. She told investigators she saw Carter smoking on the
deck of the house.
"I was sitting across the street when I saw her and I called 911,"
Doll told KOMO/4. "The cops went up to the house and talked to
the boyfriend."
Deputies responding to the home spoke with Radtke, who claimed not to
have seen Kelsey for three weeks and said she was his babysitter, not
his girlfriend. Unable to lawfully force their way into the home,
deputies left.
Writing the court, Detective John Pavlovich said Carter and Radtke –
knowing that Carter's mother was waiting outside – decided to wait until
dark, then walk on railroad tracks into Cumberland.
Radtke then armed himself with a .41 cal. single-action revolver.
Pavlovich told the court Radtke explained he was unfamiliar with the
area and feared he and Carter would run into "unfriendly people or
unfriendly wildlife."
According to charging documents, Radtke placed the cocked pistol in a
western or "cowboy" holster, then donned the gun belt. Carter on his
lap, he sat cross-legged on the floor as they waited for darkness
to fall.
"After sitting in this fashion for several minutes Radtke stated that
the revolver became uncomfortable and he grabbed it to adjust it on his
hip when it unexpectedly fired," Pavlovich told the court. "He stated
that immediately after hearing the shot he looked at the revolver, set
it down on the floor and then looked at Carter and realized that she had
been shot."
Assisted by another man, Radtke rushed Carter to Enumclaw Regional
Hospital. They arrived just after 8 p.m.; Carter died 20 minutes later.
Speaking to Pavlovich, Radtke said he met Carter several months
before when she was hired to babysit for him, according to charging
documents. They began dating weeks later; she moved in with him when she
ran away from home.
Writing the court, Pavlovich also said Radtke was able to give a
detailed description of the revolver, which had been modified to have a
"hair trigger."
"You could blow on the trigger and it would go off," Radtke allegedly told the detective.
The revolver was manufactured without a safety bar, which would block
the hammer's path to the cartridge in order to prevent unintended
firing. The manufacturer, Ruger, had issued a recall on the model and
provided free safety conversion kits.
Radtke allegedly told the detective several of his friends had accidentally fired the pistol previously.
According to charging documents, Radtke contended the pistol was not cocked when he attempted to shift it and shot Carter.
Further examination of the gun showed it would only have fired if the
hammer was fully cocked and the trigger was depressed completely,
Pavlovich told the court. A light brush of the trigger would not have
caused it to fire.
Radtke has been charged with first-degree manslaughter. He is
expected to be arraigned Aug. 4 at the Norm Maleng Regional Justice
Center in Kent.http://www.seattlepi.com/local/article/Boyfriend-charged-in-teen-runaway-s-death-1527864.php

Why is this resolved? Isn't he going to be tried?