Post by Joanna on Nov 5, 2013 21:25:58 GMT -5
Omar Pineda, Perry James and Lacey Pineda
'Bigfoot Hunt' Goes Wrong, Ends with Man Shot, Three Arrested
CLAREMORE, Okla. – Three people were arrested over a bogus Sasquatch hunt that authorities say wasted their time and put a man in the hospital with a nasty gunshot wound.
Omar Pineda, 21, was arrested after he told Rogers County deputies that he shot his friend in the back when a "barking noise" spooked him during a hunt for Bigfoot late Saturday night.
"If [they] had just been factual, upfront and truthful with us and explained that this was truly an accident, as strange as it might sound, we would have went ahead and investigated and probably nobody would have [gone] to jail," Rogers County Sheriff Scott Walton told News On 6. "[But] ... when you start off with an explanation like that, [how] do you believe anything after that?"
According to KFOR, the bullet entered the victim's back and went through his stomach. He underwent surgery at an area hospital and is expected to survive.
Pineda's father-in-law, Perry Don James, 53, was also arrested in connection with the so-called "Bigfoot hunt." Police said that James, who is a convicted felon, threw a gun in a pond, which police dive teams then had to recover. He is charged with felon in possession of a firearm and destruction of evidence.
Lacey Jane Pineda, 22, the wife of the shooting suspect, was charged with obstruction after allegedly lying to police about the shooting. Omar Pineda is charged with careless use of a firearm.
Oklahoma is not known as a hotspot for Bigfoot sightings in the U.S., although more than a few encounters have been reported there over the years.
Source: The Huffington Post, November 5, 2013.
