Charges have been filed in the shooting death of a 17-year-old Kingsley High School student. Plymouth County Sheriff Jeff Van Otterloo says 14-year-old William “Billy” Noll was was taken into custody at his father’s residence near Royal in the shooting death of Kyle Badgerow of Kingsley.
Noll has been charged with involuntary manslaughter and willful injury. He has been transported to the Youth Emergency Services Detention Center at Cherokee.
The shooting occurred last Friday afternoon at a rural residence near Kingsley. Badgerow had sustained a fatal gun shot wound to the chest from a .45 caliber pistol. Sheriff, Mike Van Otterloo told reporters at a news conference today that at the time of the shooting, there were four minors inside the residence, but no adults.
Authorities issued three search warrants: one for the residence, a second for the Kingsley-Pierson school, and a third for the residence of Noll’s father. Noll is a step brother to Badgerow. Van Otterloo wouldn’t explain any details that lead to the shooting, but only to say that Noll and all the family members and people present during the shooting have been cooperative during the investigation.
He also said that there wasn’t any alcohol involved when the pistol was fired.”To say that it accidentally went off is probably not a correct statement, that’s shown by the charges that have been filed,” Van Otterloo said. “And also to state that there was some kind of altercation prior to the gun going off and killing Kyle, I would have to say, no, that is not true.”
Van Otterloo said several guns were found in the residence, but only one bullet from one gun was fired. The Sheriff was asked why the charges were not filed until now.
“It’s basically because it took us the five or six days to develop the information that we feel we were getting to in order to get to a charge,” Van Otterloo said. He said they had to do interviews and execute the search warrants to put the information together to support the charges.
Van Otterloo said additional charges may be filed. He called the shooting and the week following as a sad situation for everyone and an emotional week.
By Dennis Morrice, KLEM, Le Mars