Cheney Accidently Shoots Hunter

J

Jersay

House Member
Dec 1, 2005
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Independent Palestine
WASHINGTON - Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot and wounded a companion during a weekend quail hunting trip in Texas, spraying the fellow hunter in the face and chest with shotgun pellets.

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Harry Whittington, a millionaire attorney from Austin, was "alert and doing fine" in a Corpus Christi hospital Sunday after he was shot by Cheney on a ranch in south Texas, said Katharine Armstrong, the property's owner.

He was in stable condition Sunday, said Yvonne Wheeler, spokeswoman for the Christus Spohn Health System in Corpus Christi.

Armstrong in an interview with The Associated Press said Whittington, 78, was mostly injured on his right side, with the pellets hitting his cheek, neck and chest during the incident which occurred late afternoon on Saturday.

She said emergency personnel traveling with Cheney tended to Whittington until the ambulance arrived.

Cheney's spokeswoman, Lea Anne McBride, said the vice president met with Whittington and his wife at the hospital on Sunday. Cheney "was pleased to see that he's doing fine and in good spirits," she said.

The shooting was first reported by the Corpus Christi Caller-Times. The vice president's office did not disclose the accident until the day after it happened.

Armstrong said she was watching from a car while Cheney, Whittington and another hunter got out of the vehicle to shoot at a covey of quail.

Whittington shot a bird and went to look for it in the tall grass, while Cheney and the third hunter walked to another spot and discovered a second covey.

Whittington "came up from behind the vice president and the other hunter and didn't signal them or indicate to them or announce himself," Armstrong said.

"The vice president didn't see him," she continued. "The covey flushed and the vice president picked out a bird and was following it and shot. And by god, Harry was in the line of fire and got peppered pretty good."

Whittington has been a private practice attorney in Austin since 1950 and has long been active in Texas Republican politics. He's been appointed to several state boards, including when then-Gov. George W. Bush named him to the Texas Funeral Service Commission.

McBride did not comment about why the vice president's office did not tell reporters about the accident until the next day. She referred the question to Armstrong, who could not be reached again Sunday evening.

Armstrong, owner of the Armstrong Ranch where the accident occurred, said Whittington was bleeding and Cheney was very apologetic.

"It broke the skin," she said of the shotgun pellets. "It knocked him silly. But he was fine. He was talking. His eyes were open. It didn't get in his eyes or anything like that."

"Fortunately, the vice president has got a lot of medical people around him and so they were right there and probably more cautious than we would have been," she said. "The vice president has got an ambulance on call, so the ambulance came."

Cheney is an avid hunter who makes annual hunting trips to South Dakota to hunt pheasants. He also travels frequently to Arkansas to hunt ducks.

Armstrong said Cheney is a longtime friend who comes to the ranch to hunt about once a year and is "a very safe sportsman." She said Whittington is a regular, too, but she thought it was the first time the two men hunted together.

"This is something that happens from time to time. You now, I've been peppered pretty well myself," said Armstrong.

The 50,000-acre Armstrong ranch has been in the influential south Texas family since the turn of the last century. Katharine is the daughter of Tobin Armstrong, a politically connected rancher who has been a guest at the White House and spent 48 years as director of the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association. He died in October. Cheney was among the dignitaries who attended his funeral.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060212...NlqP0AC;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl

In American law, can someone be charged if they shoot someone accidently.
 
Mogz

Mogz

Council Member
Jan 26, 2006
1,254
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Edmonton
RE: Cheney Accidently Sho

In American law, can someone be charged if they shoot someone accidently.
Click to expand...

Yes, if they're thought to have acted negligently. In a case such as this, if it did go to court, it'd be thrown out provided Chenney wasn't found to be negligent in his handling of the firearm.
 
zoofer

zoofer

Council Member
Dec 31, 2005
1,274
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Did he nail Teddy Chappaquiddick? Howard Dean? Oh he hit a friend instead!
Good thing it was bird shot and not slugs loaded for bear.
 
V

Virtual Burlesque

Nominee Member
Feb 19, 2005
55
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Ontario
Maybe old Dead Eye Dick should give up hunting, considering all the difficulty he stirs up with these sporting endeavours of his.

In 2004, Dick took Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia duck hunting with unfortunate repercussions.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/01/19/scotus.cheney.scalia/


And had his sportsmanship was questioned by the Humane Society when it became known that the mighty hunter had killed 70 pen-reared pheasants one morning, then moved on to kill an unknown number of mallard ducks in a “canned hunt” at a Pennsylvania hunting club, in 2003.

http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/news/2693558/detail.html
 
Curiosity

Curiosity

Senate Member
Jul 30, 2005
7,326
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WMD have been found! Dick Cheney!

Some applauding because he shot a lawyer ! Jay Leno

Media in a snit because the local newspaper was called first giving them the scoop instead of the raging rag writers in Washington!

http://corner.nationalreview.com/06_02_12_corner-archive.asp
Posted at 06:31 AM

OH, GOOD GRIEF, YOURSELF YOURSELF [Mark Steyn]

I'm reluctant to disparage John Podhoretz as some effete metrosexual Ethel Merman impersonator, being one myself. But I can't see how the hunting thing is going to hurt Cheney or the GOP. For one thing, even when they've got the bones of a case, you can always rely on the Democrats and the media to over-react and, in so doing, come across as a lot of prigs. Already, NBC's David Gregory, the George Clooney of the press corps, has been huffin' an' a-puffin' all over the TV demanding answers - multiple answers - about why he had to wait 18 hours to hear about the accident. Who cares? A "sinister cover-up" has to boil down to more than not giving David Gregory a press release. And, given that the media's spent the last two weeks telling the public why they don't need to see these Danish cartoons, it's hard to take them seriously as sudden converts to the public's right to know every detail, if only when it comes to minor hunting accidents.

From an anecdotal survey of my part of the North Country, most guys see the Cheney business as an excuse to tell their own hunting stories, mostly of the been-there-done-(or-nearly-done)-that variety. I'm not saying I'm entirely on board with the line that real men shoot each other all the time without whining like a bunch of ninnies about what's no more than a healthy American male bonding experience. But on balance this is one of those no-scandal scandals where Democrat/media hysteria only underlines their estrangement from the average red-state male. If John disagrees, I'd be happy to argue it out with him on a hunting trip deep in the woods - or, if he doesn't trust me that far off the grid, we can shoot each other's Broadway cast albums off the back of the pick-up one weekend.
Click to expand...
 
I think not

I think not

Hall of Fame Member
Apr 12, 2005
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Man shot by Cheney has minor heart attack

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas - The 78-year-old lawyer who was shot by Vice President Dick Cheney in a hunting accident has some birdshot lodged in his heart and he had a "minor heart attack," a hospital official said Tuesday.

Peter Banko, the hospital administrator at Christus Spohn Hospital Corpus Christi-Memorial, said Harry Whittington had the heart attack early Tuesday while being evaluated.

He said there was an irregularity in the heartbeat caused by a pellet, and doctors performed a cardiac catheterization.

Whittington expressed a desire to leave the hospital, but Banko said he would probably stay for another week.

Whittington, a prominent Republican attorney from Austin, was accidentally sprayed with shotgun pellets when Cheney was aiming for a quail Saturday.

Whittington had initially been placed in intensive care. He had been moved to a "step-down unit" Monday after doctors decided to leave several birdshot pellets lodged in his skin rather than try to remove them.

A Texas Parks and Wildlife Department report said Whittington was retrieving a downed bird and stepped out of the hunting line he was sharing with Cheney. "Another covey was flushed and Cheney swung on a bird and fired, striking Whittington in the face, neck and chest at approximately 30 yards," the report said.

The wildlife department issued a report Monday that found the main factor contributing to the accident was a "hunter's judgment factor." No other secondary factors were found to have played a role.

Looking for the humor
Just before the latest news on Whittington's health, the White House had apparently decided that the best way to deal with the incident was to joke about it.

President Bush’s spokesman quipped Tuesday that the burnt orange school colors of the University of Texas championship football team that was visiting the White House shouldn’t be confused for hunter’s safety wear.

“The orange that they’re wearing is not because they’re concerned that the vice president may be there,” joked White House press secretary Scott McClellan, following the lead of late-night television comedians. “That’s why I’m wearing it.”

The president’s brother, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, took a similar jab after slapping an orange sticker on his chest from the Florida Farm Bureau that read, “No Farmers, No Food.”

“I’m a little concerned that Dick Cheney is going to walk in,” the governor cracked during an appearance in Tampa Monday.

Cheney silent
Cheney, an experienced hunter, has not been joking or saying anything publicly at all about the accident.

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department issued a report Monday that found the main factor contributing to the accident was a “hunter’s judgment factor.” No other secondary factors were found to have played a role.

The department gave Cheney and the victim, prominent Republican attorney Harry Whittington, warning citations for breaking Texas hunting law by failing to buy a $7 stamp allowing them to shoot upland game birds. A department spokesman said warnings are being issued in most cases because the stamp requirement only went into effect five months ago and many hunters weren’t aware of it.

Cheney’s office said Monday night in a statement that Cheney had a $125 nonresident hunting license and has sent a $7 check to cover the cost of the stamp. “The staff asked for all permits needed, but was not informed of the $7 upland game bird stamp requirement,” the statement said.

Katharine Armstrong, owner of the ranch where the shooting occurred, said it happened toward the end of the hunt, when it was still sunny but as darkness was encroaching and they were preparing to go inside. She said Whittington made a mistake by not announcing that he had walked up to rejoin the hunting line, and Cheney didn’t see him as he tried to down a bird.

Armstrong said she saw Cheney’s security detail running toward the scene. “The first thing that crossed my mind was he had a heart problem,” she told The Associated Press.

Cheney 'a great shot'
She said Cheney stayed “close but cool” while the agents and medical personnel treated Whittington, then took him by ambulance to the hospital. Later, the hunting group sat down for dinner while Whittington was being treated, receiving updates from a family member at the hospital. Armstrong described Cheney’s demeanor during dinner as “very worried” about Whittington.

Pamela Willeford, the U.S. ambassador to Switzerland, another member of the hunting party, told The Dallas Morning News for a story in Tuesday’s editions that she and Cheney didn’t realize Whittington had picked up a bird and caught up with them.

Willeford said she has hunted with Cheney before and would again.

“He’s a great shot. He’s very safety conscious. This is something that unfortunately was a bad accident and when you’re with a group like that, he’s safe or safer than all the rest of us,” she said.

But the accident raised questions about Cheney’s adherence to hunting safety practices and the White House’s failure to disclose the accident in a timely way.

Several hunting safety experts interviewed agreed it would have been a good idea for Whittington to announce himself. But every expert stressed that the shooter is responsible for avoiding other people.

Bush was told about Cheney’s involvement in the accident shortly before 8 p.m. Saturday — about an hour after it occurred — but the White House did not disclose the accident until Sunday afternoon, and then only in response to press questions.

Facing a press corps upset that news had been withheld, McClellan said, “I think you can always look back at these issues and look at how to do a better job.”

---------------------------------------------------------------

If this guy dies, Cheney is buh-bye.
 
I think not

I think not

Hall of Fame Member
Apr 12, 2005
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