BATON ROUGE - A Christmas weekend hunting trip turned tragic when 54-year-old Thomas Franklin mistook 34-year-old Jacob Altazan for a deer and killed him.

David Doucet, a friend of Altazan's said he was knowledgeable about hunting.

"That's what he did. Hunting and fishing," Doucet said. 

Doucet said Altazan was diligent with hunting safety, which is why it was no surprise to see him in his hunter's safety orange gear while packing up to leave that day.

A security camera captured Altazan, Franklin and another man packing up their car at 3 p.m. Saturday. Police were dispatched to the shooting at 4:20 p.m.

Doucet said the third man from the group told him what happened.

"He heard the gunshot go off. Then he heard screaming and whenever he got to where the screaming was coming from, Tommy [Franklin] was standing there with the gun talking about 'it accidentally went off' and 'he's dead'."

Franklin told police no one was wearing their hunter's orange safety vests when the shooting happened.

Doucet said it's hard for him to believe that Altazan removed his vest.

"He had orange on whenever he got out of the vehicle and went into the woods and the time frame that I put together they couldn't have been in the woods very long at all and where did his orange go to? He didn't take it off and throw it on the ground?" Doucet said.

He said that if Franklin's description is accurate, he doesn't understand why the hunters removed their orange vests. And if they weren't wearing orange, he said he doesn't understand why Franklin wasn't more careful shooting.

"Jacob had orange on when he got out of the vehicle and went into the woods," Doucet said. "He went in to the woods before them two and if something did happen and his orange did come off for whatever reason, why would you go into the woods and discharge a firearm without putting your eyes on that third person when you know he's in there?"

Franklin was booked with negligent homicide early Sunday. He was released Christmas Day on a $10,000 bond.