An Illinois man has been arrested six weeks after he shot and killed his 14-year-old daughter while shooting blindingly into into a building in an attempt to kill a buzzard.
David Schultheis, 34, was charged with reckless discharge of a firearm in the July 21 shooting that left Emma Schultheis dead, the Monroe County Sheriff’s Department said.
A second person, 58-year-old Karen Schwarze, has been charged with concealing a homicidal death an obstructing justice.
The sheriff’s department said deputies and EMS were called to the sceen at about 1:30 p.m. for the shooting. They found young Emma Schultheis with a gunshot wound. She was taken to a St. Louis-area hospital, where she died “despite continued medical intervention.”
Investigators worked for more than a month on the case, finally fnishing its investigation on August 26. They said that David Schultheis was trying to kill a buzzard that had entered a brick building. To do so, he “inserted only his arm into the room — keeping his head outside the doorway to avoid potential ricochet — before pulling the trigger” on his handgun. The bullet hit the bird, passed through it and out a window, where it struck the teen, who was outside.
Schultheis “knowingly and unlawfully discharged a firearm in a reckless manner, thereby endangering the bodily safety of another individual, the department said.
Sheriff Neal Rohlfing told the Belleville News-Democrat that the shooting was “not intentional.”
“He was shooting in an unsafe direction and made some poor choices in my opinion and unfortunately it resulted in his daughter’s death,” Rohlfing said.
Schwarze — whose relationship with the suspect and the victim was not disclosed — “unlawfully concealed the death of Emma Schultheis, knowing that her death resulted from homicidal means,” the department said. She is also accused of trying “to influence others not to speak with law enforcement officers during the early stages of the investigation and hid the Taurus .40 caliber pistol Schultheis used in the shooting “with the intent to prevent the apprehension or prosecution of David Schultheis.”
Despite the “homicidal” nature of the teen’s death, her father was only charged with reckless discharge of a firearm.
Schultheis surrendered this week and was processed and released. Schwarze “is making arrangements to voluntarily surrender herself … in the near future.”
Emma Schultheis was a sophomore at Red Bud High School. She was shot to death six days before her 15th birthday.
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[Featured image: Emma Schultheis/Quernheim Funeral Home]
