Rochester, WA dog training facility owner accused of killing employee during video shoot
WA dog trainer arrested in fatal shooting during video shoot
Deputies in Thurston County, Washington say the owner of a dog training facility in Rochester shot his employee during a video production shoot, killing him.
ROCHESTER, Wash. - Deputies in Thurston County say the owner of a dog training facility fatally shot his employee during a video production shoot.
The sheriff's office says Wayne Curry was arrested and charged with manslaughter. He made an appearance in Thurston County Court on Wednesday.
WA man shot, killed during filming of dog training exercise involving live gunfire
A Lewis County man was shot and killed during a working dog training exercise involving live gunfire on Tuesday.
What we know:
The dog training facility is called Kraftwerk K9, and sits off of 183rd Avenue Southwest in Rochester, Washington. Investigators say Wayne shot the employee as a video crew and others looked on in shock.
"It was just sort of chaotic, about, sort of everybody’s emotions going crazy at once," said Lt. Mike Brooks with the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office.
Brooks says the production team was shooting what was believed to be an advertising or training video, showing how Curry and his team train dogs to respond to gunshots.
"In the midst of that, they were trying to move some people around and they were using live ammunition with some gunfire as part of the training," said Lt. Brooks. "The firearm was discharged multiple times and ultimately, one of the employees was struck."
He says the employee who was killed was in his 20s and died at the scene.
"I believe there were several people standing around that were either part of the filming or people doing the filming that were in distress, shook up about obviously what they just witnessed happen," said Brooks.
He believes the man's death could have been avoided.
"You don’t put people downrange in front of barrels. You just have to be so cautious," he said. "It’s just inherent, safe, firearms operations, and I think that’s what was neglected in this case was the safe operation of firearms."
Brooks says the victim is from Lewis County. He says his heart goes out to the victim's family and loved ones.
"We have family members who have lost a family member, friends who lost a friend," he said.
The Source: Information in this story came from the Thurston County Sheriff's Office.
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