COLORADO SPRINGS – The man arrested Sunday by El Paso County Sheriff’s Deputies in an accidental shooting told investigators that thought that the handgun that he fired at his friend was unloaded. Isaac Klippert, 21, was arrested early Sunday morning and booked in the El Paso County Criminal Justice Center on charges of Felony Manslaughter, Assault with a Deadly Weapon and Misdemeanor Prohibited Use of a Firearm.
According to the probable cause affidavit, Klippert and the victim were part of a group that spent most of the day on Saturday shooting guns along Old Stage Road. When they returned to the victim’s house, they cleaned their weapons and began playing cards and drinking.
A Glock pistol that belonged to a man identified by deputies as Brandon Rock was left on the card table sitting next to Klippert. Rock told deputies that for no reason other than he, the victim, and Klippert, “being young, dumb and in the military they often play jokes on each other.”
“Mr. Rock stated he believed Mr. Klippert, while fooling around, grabbed the gun, worked the slide action on the weapon, pointed the weapon at (the victim) and pulled the trigger expecting the gun to click as if a dry fired (empty) weapon would do and scare (the victim,)” Detective Nickolas Brklich wrote in the affidavit.
Klippert, who waived his Miranda Rights, described the shooting as happening the in the same way that Rock had told investigators.
“Mr. Klippert racked the slide one time, pointed the gun at (the victim) and pulled the trigger,” Brklich wrote.
Klippert told deputies that he’d drank three 16 ounce beers prior to the incident. He is being held in jail on $25,000 bond and is scheduled to be advised of the charges against him on Tuesday. The victim’s identity is being withheld pending the notification of next of kin.
