Story Archive

Mercy Me

According to police reports, Matthew Starr, 19, was target shooting with three of his friends near Vancouver Lake, Wash. Starr says that as they were walking, he stumbled and accidentally fired his rifle. The bullet hit his friend, Joshua Schenk, 25, in the back of the head. “Starr said that he felt Schenk may be suffering and knew that emergency help was more than “five minutes’ away,” reports say. “Starr said he subsequently shot Joshua Schenk again, intentionally, in the top of the head, ‘like you would a deer’ that was injured or suffering... to put his friend out of his misery.” The group then dragged the body off of the trail, where it was later discovered by a passer-by. Prosecutor say there’s evidence that the murder was premeditated, and Starr has been charged with first-degree murder and first-degree robbery, the latter since Starr allegedly admitted that after Schenk was dead, he took $300 from his wallet. (MS/Vancouver Columbian) ...Maybe that was his “mercy fee.”