A legal anomaly?

[chickenfeet]

On Boxing Day, a fifteen year old girl was killed while shopping. She was hit by a single stray bullet after a gun fight broke out between two youths in a busy part of downtown. Police have arrested the two alleged gunmen and charged them with fire arms related offences. No-one has been charged with murder because they haven't identified who fired the fatal shot. Surely there is something wrong with the law here? Both gunmen are equally culpable and should face murder charges. If a person or persons open(s) up unlawfully with a fire arm in a crowded place, purposing the death of Person A or B, they are surely equally culpable if person X, Y or Z is killed, regardless of which gunman fired the fatal shot.

Comments

[lilactime.livejournal.com]

Apparently not, otherwise they'd have charged the guy with murder already. I suspect there will be more charges laid against the fellow arrested if they can match his gun with any of the non-fatal injuries, but if his bullet didn't kill the girl, they can't charge him with her murder.

I suspect there's a great deal more they're not telling us about the whole thing while they continue the investigation. At one point a few days ago, one news station was reporting that one of the other people injured *was* one of the intended targets, and then all of a sudden, the same station was back to the story that all of the seven people hit were bystanders.