UF Animal Forensic Conference 2024: Hunter Accidents with Ken Trusley

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Our next guest is Ken Trusley from the Florida Fish and

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Wildlife Conservation Commission.

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Thank you for being here,

and welcome to The Junction.

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Ken Trusley: Yes ma'am, thank you.

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DrG: So can you start by letting

our listeners know about your

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background and what do you do?

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Ken Trusley: Uh, I am a lieutenant

with Florida Fish and Wildlife.

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I've been on for about 15 years.

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I was an officer for about five years.

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Then I was an investigator

for a little while and then

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promoted to lieutenant of patrol.

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And about two years ago I switched over

to lieutenant over our investigations

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unit, uh, the South investigations

unit of the Northeast region.

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So we cover about six counties.

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DrG: And your chat today,

your topic was about hunter.

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They said hunter accidents, but

you call them incidents, right?

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So what is a hunting incident?

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Ken Trusley: Uh, so hunting incident

is typically when, um, Somebody is

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legally or illegally hunting and

they Intentionally, unintentionally,

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or accidentally injure another

person, uh, typically with a firearm.

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DrG: So, I would think that accidental

and unintentionally would be kind of

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the same thing, but they're not, right?

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So, like, what's the difference?

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Ken Trusley: So, it's very similar,

but we kind of break it down.

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If it's Accidental, I chalk it up

as like an accidental discharge.

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They did not intentionally point the gun.

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They did not intentionally

squeeze the trigger.

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Versus an unintentional

incident is they purposely and

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intentionally shouldered the weapon.

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They purposely and intentionally squeezed

the trigger, discharging the firearm.

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It just struck an unintentional target.

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DrG: So kind of like a bad shot.

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Ken Trusley: Correct.

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DrG: So, do you see

incidents very frequently?

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Ken Trusley: Um, I would say in our area

we have probably two to three a year

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and throughout the state we probably

have between six and seven a year.

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DrG: And what's going to be the

most common type of incident

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that you see in the field?

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Ken Trusley: Typically for us, it

is legal hunters, um, that failed to

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identify the target or what's beyond it.

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We have deer hunters and Turkey hunters,

hog hunters that, um, accidentally shoot

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another hunter, whether it be someone

in their hunting party or someone that

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they did not know was there at all.

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DrG: A lot of like comedy or spoof

things that are showing hunters,

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they always show him with like a

beer can in their hand or whatever.

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So I imagine that there's going to

be different factors that increase

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the risk of these incidents.

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So what would be the things

that you see the most?

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Ken Trusley: Uh, there's always

a bunch of different factors.

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There have been times in the

past where there are intoxicants

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of some sort involved.

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The biggest factors that I see is a

failure to identify their target or what's

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beyond it and sometimes the victim is

not wearing an orange vest, but they're

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not required to or they're not wearing

an orange vest and they are required to.

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But a lot of times it's a just a

failure on the shooter's part to

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identify what's beyond the target.

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Sometimes they get amped up

their heart rates pumping.

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They see a big deer they've been hunting

all season and it happens to be running.

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They don't wait for it to stop and take a

good controlled shot or it runs in between

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them and their friend and they don't

realize the proximity of their friend.

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Or we've had some to where the

person takes a good controlled shot

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at what he feels is a safe target

but does not realize what's beyond

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it, and the projectiles continue on

behind it and and strike a victim.

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DrG: So when these incidents

happen, do they result in charges?

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Does it depend on the type of

incident and who prosecutes those?

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Ken Trusley: It's all very

dependent on the incident location

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and all the factors involved.

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Um, But what we do is we investigate

it to get all the possible findings

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that there are all evidence gathered

and we put it all together in a

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very thorough incident report.

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And then we go to the state attorney

and we presented the state attorney

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and say this is all the facts of the

case is all the evidence involved.

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Um, either you know, these are the

violations we've identified or or

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we can't identify any violations.

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But either way, we consult with the

state attorney and they'll either

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agree with us or disagree with us.

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Typically, they're pretty

much in line with us.

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Um, it's very hard to get a, um, if

it's, you know, truly unintentional

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or truly accidental, it's very hard

to get a culpable negligence kind

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of charge in the state of florida.

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But there's often different license

violations, game violations, um,

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different things like that that occur.

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DrG: So do you only investigate incidents

when it's like a person on person?

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Or do you also investigate incidents

that is an animal injuring a person?

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Ken Trusley: We do.

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We, we, we do both.

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Um, we, we call it the wildlife

human incident response is what

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we, when it's a kind of like a

hunting incident response, we have

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a wildlife human incident response.

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Um, and we have alligators

are probably the most common.

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the most common in my area, but we do have

some some bear versus human incidents too.

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And we investigate those as

well and try to find out what

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was the determining factor.

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What was the cause of it all?

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DrG: So these investigations ever end up

in identifying illegal hunting activities?

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Ken Trusley: It does.

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Several times in the past we've had

identified that it was either somebody

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trespassing illegally, somebody

that was hunting in a closed season.

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Um, somebody that even as simple

as just a unlicensed hunter that

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didn't have the proper licensing,

which is typically an infraction.

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It's not, it's not a criminal offense.

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Um, but I would say a large

portion of the, of the ones that

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I've responded to lately, they've

been legal to be where they're at

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legal season and legally licensed.

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They were just did not identify

their what's beyond their target.

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DrG: Excellent.

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Well, thank you so much for

sharing your knowledge and

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thank you for what you're doing.

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Ken Trusley: Yes, ma'am.

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Thanks for having me.