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Former Guns & Ammo Editor Shoots, Kills Friend

By Laurel Morales / Senior Field Correspondent
Published May 3, 2012 at 1:00 PM PDT
This story was published more than 12 years ago.
Former Guns & Ammo Editor Shoots, Kills Friend
A former editor of Guns & Ammo magazine has been arrested for shooting and killing a friend Wednesday in Mohave County.

A former editor of Guns & Ammo magazine has been arrested for shooting and killing a friend Wednesday in Mohave County.

The county sheriff’s office said 53-year-old Richard Venola of Golden Valley was arrested on a second-degree murder charge. Police found 39-year-old James Patrick O’Neill dead of a rifle shot to the chest. Police say the men had been drinking, but detectives don’t know what led to the shooting.

Guns & Ammo magazine said Venola served in the military for almost 20 years before writing for and then serving as the publication’s 12th editor. In a profile of Venola he’s described as “one of the more colorful editors” and that he possesses an encyclopedic knowledge of all things related to firearms.

Laurel Morales
Senior Field Correspondent Laurel Morales (Flagstaff) has been a public radio reporter for 10 years; eight of them in Arizona. She has won several awards for her work, including national recognition from Public Radio News Director Inc. (PRNDI) for the only commentary she’s ever written. She prefers to highlight compelling voices other than her own and has covered blizzards, wildfires, floods and tornadoes. Morales came to northern Arizona from rural Minnesota where she worked as a reporter after receiving her master’s degree from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism.
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