HUNTER, DEALER SHOULD BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE

Printed on the same day on the front page of the Times-News last week were
two stories about tragic and avoidable death.

On Thursday, a Transylvania County magistrate issued a warrant charging a
hunter with involuntary manslaughter for the accidental shooting death of
a galax gatherer in the woods.

[Name redacted] was hunting in the Turkey Pen area of Pisgah National
Forest when the hunter allegedly fired a Winchester rifle shot that killed
Luciano M. Martinez.

Martinez, 50, of Marshall, had received a permit to gather galax in the
forest two weeks before Christmas, a plant that is used in holiday
decorating.

"They both looked through the scope and both thought what they were
shooting at was a deer," said Capt. Greg Daniels of the N.C. Wildlife
Resources Commission. [Name redacted], turned himself in Thursday.

As hunters and wildlife officers said after the shooting, in safe hunting
there is no such thing as being pretty sure about the target. The shooter
has to be absolutely sure.

District Attorney Jeff Hunt and Transylvania County authorities were right
to bring the charges.

Authorities said immediately after the shooting that the hunter could be
charged with negligent hunting. That investigators chose the more serious
charge of manslaughter shows they were unwilling to take the case lightly.
A life was taken unnecessarily, and even if the fatal action was an
accident, justice should be done. A court of law should decide.

Another arrest in another jurisdiction was made last week that upholds the
principle of accountability.

Henderson County sheriff's deputies charged [Name redacted], 19, with
second-degree murder for allegedly providing the narcotic that killed a
young Mills River man. Christopher Thomas Waters, 19, of Mills River, died
Aug. 11 of an overdose of methadone, a powerful drug that authorities say
Flores supplied.

The arrest this week was the second time Davis' office has brought a
second-degree drug charge against an alleged drug dealer whose product
caused death. Four months ago, deputies charged 23-year-old [Name
redacted] in connection with the death of Justin Kane Anderson, who died
of a Fentanyl overdose.

We compare an accidental hunting death and a drug overdose potentially
attributable to a drug dealer only to the extent that both have a cause.
Investigators and prosecutors have done the right thing in making a charge
to hold someone to account.

"We will always pursue the course of charging those who contribute to the
death of others while pursuing their own criminal interests wherever the
law allows," Sheriff Rick Davis said of the [Name redacted] arrest. "Those
who choose to sell or distribute illegal drugs in this county must
understand that they alone are responsible for effects of that product on
the life and welfare of others."

Drug users have to be held to account, too, of course, but Davis and local
prosecutors are right to focus resources on the sellers. Without them,
there can be no users.

The arrests this week at their most basic level tell the story of two
lives ended, and two lives altered forever in a harmful way. It is up to a
judge and jury to decide the guilt or innocence and penalty for the two
young men arrested.

Justice in either case cannot bring back two lives. But the message sent
by the arrests is that law officers and prosecutors will demand
accountability. And in the end, justice may prevent a similar death,
either by a careless hunter or a drug dealer peddling poison.