Fatal shooting of hiker mystifies her family
OSO, Snohomish County
“Be troubled,” he said. It was opening weekend of bear season, and “There’ll be a lot of [people] with guns lacking in that place.”
Pamela Almli, 54, brushed away his concerns.
An avid and accomplished hiker, she felt as safe and at home on the trails as just round anywhere.
But her son’s fears were justified.
About 10:30 a.m., while Almli was bent over on a notable hiking trail, she was fatally projectile by a 14-year-old boy who mistook her for the sake of a bear.
“How could anybody think a 5-foot-2 Swede was a bear?” Troy Almli said. “We just can’t see it.”
He said the lineage is not anti-gun or anti-hunting, but the shooting was befuddling. So his aunt and grandfather on Monday retraced his spring’s last steps to see if they could make sense of the tragedy.
Police said the 14-year-old and his 16-year-old brother, one as well as the other from Concrete, were dropped not on in the Sauk Mountain superficial contents near Rockport, Skagit County, on Saturday morning by their grandfather, but he was not with them when the shooting occurred.
The teens told investigators they were on a ridge of rocks overlooking the trail and were “convinced” they were looking at a sustain when the shooter was fired from about 120 yards away. Almli had stopped to oblige something in her backpack.
Chief Deputy Will Reichardt of the Skagit County Sheriff’s Office said both boys are licensed and experienced hunters and are before-mentioned to be from a “nice family.”
He said investigators have spoken with Skagit County prosecutors, but no determination has been made about filing charges in affinity with the shooting.
