Tucker Thayer, 15; Killed With Blank-Loaded Prop Gun
Bill Schenley
Pistol meant as prop for school play ends life of St. George boy, 15
FROM: The Salt Lake City Tribune ~
By Lindsay Whitehurst
The father of a St. George 15-year-old who was killed
by a blank-loaded prop gun Saturday before a school
play said he was astonished the teen had been allowed
to handle the weapon without supervision.
''It's a bad dream, everything is sucked out of me,"
said Ron Thayer, whose son Tucker died while
handling the gun. "The question we have is why there
was a real gun allowed in school . . . you don't hand
a lethal weapon to a 15-year-old and say, 'Be careful.' "
Thayer was especially saddened and bewildered when
he remembered Desert Hills High School's reaction
to a wooden-rifle prop last month. Tucker, a stage
hand for the school's production of "Oklahoma!,"
repaired the prop at home and brought it back to
school Oct. 10. Someone saw the fake gun, called
police, and the school was locked down for more
than an hour as officers cleared the potential threat.
That was exactly the right reaction, Thayer said. What
he can't understand is how the real gun, a .38-caliber
pistol, slipped through the cracks.
Police are asking the same questions.
"We do know it was in a locked case, but how much
access did this 15-year-old have?" said St. George
police Sgt. James Van Fleet.
The gun somehow fired at about 6:20 p.m. Saturday as
Tucker removed it from the locked cabinet in
preparation for a show an hour later, Van Fleet said.
The shot hit Tucker in the head, and despite being rushed
to the hospital, he was dead before 10 p.m.
Marshall Topham, assistant superintendent for secondary
education in the Washington County School District,
said he wasn't aware that real weapons were used.
A school policy prohibits guns or look-alikes on school
property, though exceptions were made for the wooden
"Oklahoma!" props, Topham said.
"The question is what restrictions and stipulations the
school administrators and resource office had put on
its use," he said. "At this point, I'm just not aware of all
the details."
Ron Thayer said he was not informed that his son
would be handling the blank-loaded pistol.
"If I knew, I would have been down there in a second,"
he said.
While his Eagle Scout son knew how to use shotguns
and .22-caliber rifles, he had never been trained how to
use a pistol because he wasn't old enough. And Tucker
didn't know how dangerous blanks can be, his father
said.
"He was a 15-year-old kid. A lot of adults don't realize
a blank can actually kill you," he said.
Though the cartridges are tipped with plastic or
cardboard instead of metal, they still contain gunpowder
and primer. Hot gas from that small explosion can be
deadly at close range, Van Fleet said.
None of three stagehands in the sound booth with
Tucker saw the shot, and police don't know how the
gun went off.
Meanwhile, Ron Thayer, his wife, Cathie, and their
three other children are mourning Tucker, the teenager
who hiked in Zion National Park and loved Harry
Potter books. He was called "Truffle" by a Boy Scout
friend because he was like the candy - hard on the
outside, soft and creamy on the inside, Tucker's father
said.
He had helped out with plays in middle school, and
relished his work with "Oklahoma!" He built sets with
his father's power tools and helped to set up lighting
and sound.
"He didn't want to be an actor, but he loved being behind
the scenes," he said. "I'm not mad at any teachers or any
kids, but I feel like the school district let us down."