http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/31365.html
A long life together -- destroyed in a second
By Crystal Carreon and Ryan Lillis - Bee Staff Writers
Published 12:00 am PDT Friday, September 29, 2006
At a small restaurant tucked among the orchards of Apple Hill, a couple shared a hamburger, a roast beef sandwich and the precious memories of nearly five decades together.
Gary and Madeline Marcy marveled that next year, they would celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary. They had known each other since high school, raised two children in Sacramento, and now had four grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. They had come a long way since that day the two of them, as teens, barreled into each other at the North Sacramento Skating Rink.
As they headed home, they stopped to see a relative in Orangevale, just off Madison Avenue. It was supposed to be a short visit: Concerned about the traffic, they declined repeated offers to stay a little longer for dinner.
Madeline and Gary Marcy just wanted to go home. Their trek would end two blocks away.
In the time it took to blink an eye, a bullet flew from one of the ranch homes dotting Lake Natoma Drive, whizzed across the street and tore through the couple's silver Honda Accord, striking Gary Marcy -- a horrific trajectory of chance and circumstance that remained under investigation Thursday by the Sheriff's Department.
"All I heard was a 'pop.' Then the windows all broke," Madeline Marcy, 69, told The Bee. "And all of a sudden, my husband just (slumped) back. I had blood all over me."
Her passenger seat was slightly reclined to accommodate her bad back, she explained. The bullet passed in front of her face to pierce her husband's neck.
She said she tried to take control of the car, veering in a daze to the right and then left before crashing into a wooden fence. Neighbors rushed to the car.
A woman dressed in a business suit climbed into the back of the Honda and held a towel to the right side of Gary Marcy's neck, said neighbor Kim Bryant. Another resident ran up, ripped off his own shirt and desperately pressed it against the unconscious man's left side.
At that moment, Madeline Marcy said she acknowledged the inevitable.
"When I saw him on the ground, when I saw his neck," she said, "I knew he was not coming back."
Marcy was taken to Mercy San Juan Medical Center about 4:30 p.m. and was declared dead about half an hour later.
Authorities quickly found the shooter -- a 14-year-old boy. The boy, whom The Bee is not identifying because of his age, had accidentally discharged a high-powered hunting rifle, according to the Sheriff's Department.
His mother, who had arrived home just after the shooting, was one of the many residents who called 911 in the aftermath.
It remained unclear Thursday whether any criminal charges would be filed. The homeowner, according to state law, could be culpable if it's determined the gun was loaded and unsecured in the home. The law states that anyone who keeps "a loaded firearm within any premises under (their) custody or control" could be liable if a person under 18 injures or kills someone with it.
Sheriff's Sgt. Tim Curran said investigators were still trying to determine who had registered the rifle and how the teenage boy, who was with a friend at the time, got hold of the weapon.
A source close to the investigation said the gun was not normally kept at the boy's home.
At the tidy home on Lake Natoma Drive, blinds were drawn behind a gaping hole in a front window. A man who answered the door Thursday declined to comment.
In South Natomas, a stream of relatives filed through the front door of the Marcy family home Thursday. A memorial bouquet rested on a kitchen buffet, alongside photographs of weddings, cruises, a man smiling with his great-grandson in his arms.
In the garage, the victim's namesake and only son, 47-year-old Gary Marcy, kept careful watch over his father's prized burgundy 1952 Chevrolet.
The younger Marcy recalled his father's lifelong passion for classic cars, purchasing them, polishing them and cruising along at classic car shows. The garage is wallpapered with photographs of the elder Marcy's precious possessions -- Depression-era coupes, retro Mustangs, even a clip from a magazine that featured Marcy's 1951 Chevy truck.
This weekend, the father and son were planning to attend a vintage Ford car show in Rancho Cordova. The son explained that his father had grown up without his own dad. The father and son hunted together, but the rifles were always locked away.
"It's a freak accident, but I don't understand what a 14-year-old boy was doing with a gun," he said. "A second before, a second later, maybe my dad would be here -- or, I could have lost both of my parents."
In the dining room, family members surrounded Madeline Marcy, fielding telephone calls and trying to arrange for a memorial service next week.
"I always did love him," Madeline Marcy said over her empty kitchen table. "We had a happy life; a real happy life."
About the writer: The Bee's Crystal Carreon can be reached at (916) 321-1203 or ccarreon@sacbee.com.
A long life together -- destroyed in a second
By Crystal Carreon and Ryan Lillis - Bee Staff Writers
Published 12:00 am PDT Friday, September 29, 2006
At a small restaurant tucked among the orchards of Apple Hill, a couple shared a hamburger, a roast beef sandwich and the precious memories of nearly five decades together.
Gary and Madeline Marcy marveled that next year, they would celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary. They had known each other since high school, raised two children in Sacramento, and now had four grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. They had come a long way since that day the two of them, as teens, barreled into each other at the North Sacramento Skating Rink.
As they headed home, they stopped to see a relative in Orangevale, just off Madison Avenue. It was supposed to be a short visit: Concerned about the traffic, they declined repeated offers to stay a little longer for dinner.
Madeline and Gary Marcy just wanted to go home. Their trek would end two blocks away.
In the time it took to blink an eye, a bullet flew from one of the ranch homes dotting Lake Natoma Drive, whizzed across the street and tore through the couple's silver Honda Accord, striking Gary Marcy -- a horrific trajectory of chance and circumstance that remained under investigation Thursday by the Sheriff's Department.
"All I heard was a 'pop.' Then the windows all broke," Madeline Marcy, 69, told The Bee. "And all of a sudden, my husband just (slumped) back. I had blood all over me."
Her passenger seat was slightly reclined to accommodate her bad back, she explained. The bullet passed in front of her face to pierce her husband's neck.
She said she tried to take control of the car, veering in a daze to the right and then left before crashing into a wooden fence. Neighbors rushed to the car.
A woman dressed in a business suit climbed into the back of the Honda and held a towel to the right side of Gary Marcy's neck, said neighbor Kim Bryant. Another resident ran up, ripped off his own shirt and desperately pressed it against the unconscious man's left side.
At that moment, Madeline Marcy said she acknowledged the inevitable.
"When I saw him on the ground, when I saw his neck," she said, "I knew he was not coming back."
Marcy was taken to Mercy San Juan Medical Center about 4:30 p.m. and was declared dead about half an hour later.
Authorities quickly found the shooter -- a 14-year-old boy. The boy, whom The Bee is not identifying because of his age, had accidentally discharged a high-powered hunting rifle, according to the Sheriff's Department.
His mother, who had arrived home just after the shooting, was one of the many residents who called 911 in the aftermath.
It remained unclear Thursday whether any criminal charges would be filed. The homeowner, according to state law, could be culpable if it's determined the gun was loaded and unsecured in the home. The law states that anyone who keeps "a loaded firearm within any premises under (their) custody or control" could be liable if a person under 18 injures or kills someone with it.
Sheriff's Sgt. Tim Curran said investigators were still trying to determine who had registered the rifle and how the teenage boy, who was with a friend at the time, got hold of the weapon.
A source close to the investigation said the gun was not normally kept at the boy's home.
At the tidy home on Lake Natoma Drive, blinds were drawn behind a gaping hole in a front window. A man who answered the door Thursday declined to comment.
In South Natomas, a stream of relatives filed through the front door of the Marcy family home Thursday. A memorial bouquet rested on a kitchen buffet, alongside photographs of weddings, cruises, a man smiling with his great-grandson in his arms.
In the garage, the victim's namesake and only son, 47-year-old Gary Marcy, kept careful watch over his father's prized burgundy 1952 Chevrolet.
The younger Marcy recalled his father's lifelong passion for classic cars, purchasing them, polishing them and cruising along at classic car shows. The garage is wallpapered with photographs of the elder Marcy's precious possessions -- Depression-era coupes, retro Mustangs, even a clip from a magazine that featured Marcy's 1951 Chevy truck.
This weekend, the father and son were planning to attend a vintage Ford car show in Rancho Cordova. The son explained that his father had grown up without his own dad. The father and son hunted together, but the rifles were always locked away.
"It's a freak accident, but I don't understand what a 14-year-old boy was doing with a gun," he said. "A second before, a second later, maybe my dad would be here -- or, I could have lost both of my parents."
In the dining room, family members surrounded Madeline Marcy, fielding telephone calls and trying to arrange for a memorial service next week.
"I always did love him," Madeline Marcy said over her empty kitchen table. "We had a happy life; a real happy life."
About the writer: The Bee's Crystal Carreon can be reached at (916) 321-1203 or ccarreon@sacbee.com.
