On the morning of November 5, 2018, Ernest Ernie Ackerly, 43, of Centennial, was fatally wounded during a hunting outing north of Granby in Grand County, Colorado. While preparing with a group of companions in a parking lot, a rifle owned by longtime friend Randall Wolfswinkel discharged and a single bullet struck Ackerly. Emergency responders took him to Middle Park Health-Granby, where he was pronounced dead.

The Grand County Sheriff’s Office opened an investigation that involved the Grand County Coroner and Colorado Parks and Wildlife. The 14th Judicial District Attorney’s Office reviewed the matter for more than a year. In June 2020 prosecutors charged Wolfswinkel, then 46, with two misdemeanors — prohibited use of a weapon and hunting in a careless manner — characterizing Ackerly’s death as an accidental discharge. The case was resolved the following month when Wolfswinkel pleaded guilty and received unsupervised probation, community service, a gun safety course, and a $5,000 charitable donation; the Ackerly family had been consulted and supported the charging decision.

Are there details about that day or the group’s procedures that anyone can add to help clarify how the rifle discharged?