Boy's Premonition Has Parents in Anguish

“I will never regret that decision of forgiveness.”

When a beautiful summer day in August 2007 suddenly turns into an unthinkable tragedy, Jack and Renee Haley’s lives were turned upside down. That morning, August 3, 2007, their oldest son, Austin, woke up in an unusually serious mood. He cryptically exclaimed that today was going to be a “very bad day.” Renee thought her son may have had a nightmare of some sort, so she encouraged him, and told him he could do three of his favorite things that day, one of which was feeding the fish at their pond. 

At the same time, a neighbor had called police about a snake caught in a birdhouse on their property. The police decided to shoot at the snake, inadvertently striking young Austin Haley with a fatal shot to the head. Renee said, “I had no idea how to even take that information. I, my mind could not comprehend it. Who shot my son?!!”

To their dismay, the town of Noble, Oklahoma was split on if the police were in error or not with the events of August 3, 2007. The Haleys still continued to pursue justice; then eight months later at the sentencing for the officers, they were significantly disappointed to find that the officers, while charged with second degree manslaughter, were only given 90 days of community service, and had their police certifications revoked.

The Haleys wanted even just a small amount of jail time for what they deemed as careless actions in shooting guns in a residential area. Jack tells, "Once their community service and probationary periods were done, their records were expunged,” which means the incident itself was removed from the legal record altogether. “To us, that just wasn’t enough,” he says. Renee elaborates on the emotions she had as well, saying, “Whenever I found out that there was really no reason for them to shoot those two shots --- anger, hurt, rage, all of these emotions just come spewing out.”

Following the disappointing court proceedings, the Haleys tried to exit the courthouse through the rear entrance when they came face to face with their son’s killer. Unexpectedly, he dropped to his knees. “His tears were streaming and he said, 'please forgive me. I did not mean to shoot your son,'" tells Renee of the former officers behavior at that moment. Faced with a difficult decision at an unexpected moment, Renee says she immediately got a vision of Jesus on the cross, suffering, being treated wrongly, with tears streaming down his face, just like her in that moment. Miraculously, when the Haleys looked at each other, they both realized the only right thing to do was to forgive the man who killed their son, and when they lifted him off his knees and told him that they forgave him, the trio then hugged, cried, and embraced together in their shared pain and grief.

It’s been over 15 years since that day in 2007, and the Haleys have welcomed two more children into their home along with Dalton --- Gabriel Jeremiah (named after Austin) and Makayla Ruth. Still, they miss their son terribly, and, through the power of the Holy Spirit, they all continue to forgive.

Jack says, “Even though I struggle with it every single day, still, it was the right thing to do.” Renee closes in saying, "We will always miss Austin, no matter the pain, no matter the agony, we don't have to carry it alone anymore. It's not just our pain...I will never regret that decision of forgiveness.”

Check out author Renee Haley’s memoir about enduring grief and finding hope, Tragedy: Confronting the Unthinkable at www.reneehaley.com.