shoots and kills vs shoots to death

In My Humble Opinion
1

Is shoots to death a badly formed and made up journalistic term?

I was taught to use action verbs in writing. Shoots and kills is a compound action verb. Shot and killed is the past tense.

I typically saw shoots and kills in most newspaper headlines until recently?

This bug anybody else? Infinitive phrases have their uses in skilled hands. John Updike’s prose is beautiful.

This headline seems clumsy to me. Police: Dad accidentally shoots adult son to death during hunting trip in New Jersey

“To walk beside my father down Sixth Street was to hear the asphalt sing.”
(John Updike, The Centaur. Alfred A. Knopf, 1962)

“I love to eat. I love to read about food. I love to look into shop windows at food.”
(Leo Lerman, The Grand Surprise: The Journals of Leo Lerman, ed. by Stephen Pascal. Alfred A. Knopf, 2007)

2

There’s no infinitive in the phrase you’re criticizing; that’s a prepositional phrase, and it’s fine, if a little sensational. The quoted headline is clumsy, but that’s mainly because it contains too much detail.

ETA: For instance, do you really need to mention that someone killed in a hunting accident was shot? Do you really need to mention New Jersey?

3

It may just be the stylistic manner we’re currently accustomed to.

The other day, I was listening to the radio, and the news-reader said something about, “The old woman was hit by a car.” He then apologized (!) and corrected himself: “The elderly woman was hit by a car.”

What’s the difference? Only a matter of stylistic convention. The phrase “old woman” is frowned upon, while the phrase “elderly woman” is today’s vogue. In objective terms, they’re pretty much the same.

I prefer “shot and killed” to “shot to death” because it’s what I’m used to. Objectively, the difference is really unimportant.

Another one I heard today: “The victim was rushed to the hospital, where he succumbed.” Succumbed? Why the euphemism? The victim died.

(I have a number of Christian Scientists in my family, and they insist on using the word “succumbed” to deny the reality of death. No one dies in their correspondence or conversation: people “succumb.” I have acquired an antipathy for the word.)

4

I often wonder why reporters think they need to invent new phrases. Shot and killed has been the standard for decades.

Surfaces is another new expression they are using. Just Say New Video of Ray Rice… or leave it out, Third video of ObamaCare consultant
Video surfaces of Ray Rice’s domestic violence incident
Third video surfaces of ObamaCare consultant slamming
Saratoga sergeant suspended after video surfaces

5

Long time ago, some bloke put together a list of some several thousand “Bus Plunges.”

Bus plunges to fiery doom.
School bus plunges over embankment.
etc.

Reporters are lazy…but, to their credit, that’s partly because readers are lazy too.

6

My question would be succumbed to what?
The inevitability that there is a good?
Measles?
Flu?
Death?

I would read “shot and killed” - with the killed being an “accident” of the shot
While shot to death would mean (or at least suggest to me) the shooter kept shooting until whatever was being shot was dead.

7

Yeah, me too. You can “shoot and kill” with one shot. “Shoots to death” sounds more like “beats to death”. You keep at it for a while, until you’re properly done.

In the context of an accident, it makes me think of that old joke, where the guy calls 911: “I just shot my hunting partner! I think I killed him! What should I do?” “Calm down! First, let’s make sure he’s really dead…”

8

I hadn’t thought about it before but shot to death does suggest multiple shots. Keep trying until it’s done.

good point.

9

Pretty much for me.

Shot and killed seems like the death may not have been intentional. Shot to death sounds real intentional.