Junior Jesse McLaughlin will celebrate his 21st birthday tomorrow. Instead of going out on the town with his friends, though, he will spend the night in a hospital bed.
He was simply another student until the morning of Oct. 13, when he and some of his coworkers were playing paintball in the woods. A hunter, Derek Madsen, stopped his Jeep to fire his gun at what he thought was a small animal in the bushes. Instead, he shot McLaughlin. The Lane County Sheriff’s Office responded immediately and transported McLaughlin to Sacred Heart Medical Center, where he currently resides in the intensive care unit.
Madsen, 28, has not been arrested, said Sgt. Clint Riley at the sheriff’s office. He and the Lane County District Attorney are jointly investigating the case, which may take some weeks to solve because of its many complexities.
“Was it an accident? Was it intentional? Was it negligent? This isn’t something you deal with every day,” Riley said.
Some of the case’s complex aspects include the fact that Madsen was hunting and that he was inside a sport-utility vehicle.
“Typically shooting a firearm from a vehicle is illegal,” said Riley. “If no one got shot and they saw him hunting, he might just get a citation for it. But then there are different interpretations of ‘hunting’ – does he get a citation for illegal hunting if he was just shooting small animals? To me, ‘hunting’ would be getting a permit to hunt deer and going out to shoot them.”
McLaughlin’s family has chosen to focus on the well-being of their son rather than the legal complexities of the situation. They issued a public statement through Sacred Heart expressing their gratefulness “for the love of so many friends, family and supporters contributing to Jesse’s healing.”
McLaughlin’s brother Isaac started a Facebook group called “Prayers and Pennies for Jesse” for anyone who wanted to help pay for treatments McLaughlin might need. Almost 450 members have joined the group.
“It has been good to have family and friends surrounding us during this time of adversity,” he wrote in a post Tuesday. He said the family’s current concern is with Jesse’s lungs, which have excess fluid and block some oxygen flow into his blood.
Mary Flickinger, Jesse’s boss at the International House of Pancakes in Springfield, expressed her hope that Jesse would soon get well.
“He’s a great kid,” said Flickinger. “He’s got a really positive attitude; he’s witty and very respectful.”
McLaughlin majors in business administration and, according to his Facebook profile, he likes to play tennis, watch sports and hang out with his friends. He grew up in McMinnville, where he played on his high school football team.
The family asks that those who wish to donate deposit money in the Wells Fargo account they set up for McLaughlin. Deposits can be made to account number 7782541861 at any Wells Fargo branch.
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