Maine Hunting Related Tragedy Has Another Tragedy

Megan Ripley was shot and killed near her home on Christian Ridge Road in South Paris last Thursday. Details of the shooting are being withheld by the Maine Warden Service, who is the lead investigator. The reason the Warden Service is withholding evidence is so that when details are revealed they will be facts that will show us all exactly what happened and hopefully why. The death of this young girl is devastating to her family and friends and something that rocks a community.

But there’s another tragedy taking place as well, though not nearly the scope of the death of a young girl. The tragedy is the speculation from people as to what happened and the media running with these kinds of stories. People will talk and rumors will fly but printing this garbage serves no purpose. It is irresponsible of any news outlet to print what some person(s) who wasn’t even there has to say about the shooting.

Unless you were a witness and you knew what was going through the minds of both the shooter and the victim, you have no business spouting off as though an authority and the media has no business printing it. This spin-off tragedy is the result of people making statements to embellish, incite and inflame a story, for what purpose, I don’t know.

We don’t know why the shooter pulled the trigger. We don’t know what the circumstances were that led to the hunter pulling the trigger. For us to sit and speculate that the hunter “mistook” the victim for a deer is irresponsible. There could have been a misfire or any number of things that happened. We just don’t know.

At this juncture, I’ll put my odds on the Maine Warden Service that they will piece the series of events together and come up with a likely scenario that led to the death of young Megan Ripley. In the meantime, let’s not invite trouble by speculating what might have happened and what it will lead to.

Tom Remington