‘Tragic accident’: No criminal charges in death of Sac State student shot by pellet gun, DA says
Following a six-month investigation by local law enforcement and an independent review, prosecutors say they will not pursue criminal charges in the April homicide of a Sacramento State student, calling his death after being shot by a pellet gun “a tragic accident.”
The Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office in a statement to The Sacramento Bee on Friday said the “facts did not warrant the filing of any criminal charges” in the April 12 death of William Molina, a 21-year-old Folsom High School alum who was set to graduate from the university weeks later with a degree in business.
Molina was a member of Pi Kappa Alpha, and was pronounced dead early that morning after sustaining an injury from a pellet gun projectile while at the fraternity’s unofficial house on Lycoming Court.
“This case involved the tragic death of a young man just months before his graduation from California State University, Sacramento,” Assistant Chief Deputy District Attorney Rod Norgaard state in an emailed statement.
“Homicide detectives from the Sacramento Police Department conducted a thorough death investigation and asked our office to review this incident,” Norgaard’s full statement continued. “Our office conducted an independent review of the police department’s investigation. After our review, we determined that this was a tragic accident and that the facts did not warrant the filing of any criminal charges.”
The decision not to pursue charges was first reported Thursday by The State Hornet, the Sacramento State student newspaper, citing a statement from the Sacramento Police Department.
A copy of the Sacramento County coroner’s report, first published by The State Hornet, lists Molina’s cause of death as a “penetrating pellet wound of chest.” Police audio obtained via Broadcastify.com from the morning of the shooting included an officer saying that Molina had been shot accidentally by a friend. Molina was pronounced dead at a hospital at 3:40 a.m. April 12.
Sacramento police spokesman Officer Karl Chan confirmed to The Sacramento Bee on Friday that the investigation ended last month, “and that we received word that the (District Attorney’s) Office will not be filing charges in that case.”
Chan said the case was forwarded to the District Attorney’s Office following an approximately six-month investigation by detectives.
No suspects had been arrested in connection with the incident at the College/Glen home, and no other details regarding the police investigation or DA review were provided.
At a vigil at the Sacramento State campus two nights after his death, mourners remembered Molina as a loving “scholar, leader, athlete, gentleman” and someone who “made you smile.”
According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, about four deaths per year are caused by BB guns or pellet guns, which use air to propel small, metallic pellets. In Sacramento, city code prohibits people from carrying or using “any air gun for the purpose of discharging” except in licensed shooting galleries.
