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Cop faces prison in his son’s death
TweetSentencing will occur after a pre-sentence investigation.
YOUNGSTOWN — A part-time Minerva police officer faces up to five years in prison after pleading guilty to child endangering stemming from the accidental shooting death of his 2-year-old son.
In exchange for the guilty plea entered Monday morning before Judge Maureen A. Sweeney of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, the involuntary manslaughter charge against Douglas Foor, 25, was dismissed.
The child- endangering charge against Amanda Saunier, 24, the boy’s mother and Foor’s girlfriend, also was dismissed as part of the plea deal.
The couple lives on Murray Avenue, Minerva.
Tracey Laslo, one of the attorneys who represented the couple, said that Foor will no longer be able to serve as a police officer. But he wants to save others from similar mistakes, the lawyer said.
“He wants to teach gun safety,” she said.
The couple’s son, Jacob, killed himself when he fired a handgun into his chest Nov. 13, 2008. The gun was Foor’s, but not his service weapon.
Smith Township police have said the toddler had the barrel of the gun pointing toward his chest and pulled the trigger with both thumbs.
Foor will be sentenced after a pre-sentence investigation is completed.
The plea agreement means Foor could be sentenced to up to five years in prison.
An involuntary manslaughter conviction carries a prison sentence of up to 10 years.
Foor and Saunier sat stoically in the courtroom gallery, awaiting the start of the proceedings. Foor, dressed in off-white cargo pants and a striped, button-down shirt, answered guilty, when Judge Sweeney asked for his plea to the child endangering charge.
Laslo said the couple, who remain together along with their 1-year-old daughter, Hannah, have had a difficult time since their son’s death.
“They cry all the time,” she said.
They have much support, though, from their church, the attorney said.
denise_dick@vindy.com
Comments
just let him go home.
This was a tragic accident and this poor father will suffer the loss of his son for the rest of his life.
He is no danger to society, he is not a habbitual offender....why lock him up on tax payer dollars for 5 years?
Let him live with and work to support his family.
This guy is guilty of being careless, and that's it!!! I'd say he and his family have suffered enough. To lock him up for up to 5 years is stupid. We have drug dealing gang members who actually pull the trigger and kill someone who get less time than this. Let him go, put him on short probation and let's free up the courts for real criminals. The lawyers in this country need to go back to school and learn common sense
I agree, let him go home. This was a tragic accident. Let him and his girlfriend heal and mourn their loss.
i am sorry but if the tables were turned and they were any other nationality everyone would want them to serve their time - this should be a lesson to him not to have weapons where their children can get to them - he should do his time just like everyone else -
That is a racist comment. I'm a former police officer and when I went to the State Police Academy one of the first things the Weapons Instructor told us was to go home and teach your kids about the weapon. When I got home I sat them down at the table and explained to them how dangerous a weapen can be. They never touched that weapon or was even curious about it after that. People need to be parents and teach their kid and not expect someone else to do it for them.
Hey ladytaz, didn't someone of a "different nationality" just get less than eighteen months in a plea bargain for actually pulling the trigger and killing someone at a drug house?
Oh that's right, it is now cool to say racist things as long as you are insulting white people......even better, this guy was a white cop.....GET HIM!!!
Absolutely disgusting.
Nationality?!!!!! He is an American. This was a horrendous tragedy, guilty or not. Leave the ignorant, nonsense comments out of it-Please!
That's what I thought too Celeste, until someone had to come along and try to turn it in to a racial thing aaaggaaaiiiinnnnnn...
As far as the story, I think he has been punished enough.