Posted on 02/12/2006 12:46:46 PM PST by bayourant
Edited on 02/12/2006 2:10:43 PM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]
Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot and injured a man during a weekend quail hunting trip in Texas, his spokeswoman said Sunday.
Harry Whittington, 78, was "alert and doing fine" after Cheney sprayed him with shotgun pellets on Saturday while the two were hunting at the Armstrong Ranch in south Texas, said property owner Katharine Armstrong.
Armstrong said Whittington was mostly injured on his right side, with the pellets hitting his cheek, neck and chest, and was taken to the hospital by ambulance.
Whittington was in stable condition Sunday, said Yvonne Wheeler, spokeswoman for the Christus Spohn Health System.
Cheney's spokeswoman, Lea Anne McBride, said the vice president was with Whittington, a lawyer from Austin, Texas, and his wife at the hospital on Sunday afternoon.
Armstrong said she was watching from a car while Cheney, Whittington and another hunter got out of the vehicle to shot at a covey of quail late afternoon on Saturday.
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 found 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 told the Associated Press in an interview.
"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."
The shooting was first reported by the Corpus Christi Caller-Times.
She said Whittington was bleeding but not very seriously injured, and Cheney was very apologetic.
"It broke the skin," she said. "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."
She said emergency personnel traveling with Cheney tended to Whittington, holding his face and cleaning up the blood.
"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."
Armstrong said Cheney is a longtime friend who comes to the ranch to hunt about once a year. 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.
___
Associated Press writer Paul Weber in Dallas contributed to this report.
Bwahahahahahaha!
Yes, I did!
We'll hear it all from Leno this week.
How about: On a tour of the Clinton White House when Hillary was PMS'ing?
Well, if you don't care that your "opinion" is founded in erroneous information, that's fine by me.
As for your tips, you can stick in your Reality Filter.
The buddy shot my manager and he was hit in the shoulder and face. Blinded in one eye, and lost half his sight in the other. Wounds into the sinus cavities that were problematic as well.
I spent Friday shooting pheasant and as there was a large group I heard some buckshot rain but thankfully, we had a pretty safe group.
Quail hunting is not something I've done, but I know that it is supposed to be something done with only two or three in a group for the very disorienting flush of a covy going in any direction from right at your feet.
You know that the HBM will get on the bandwagon to make him quit
I saw the article on Michelle Malkin's Blog about ten minutes ago
http://www.michellemalkin.com/
Jack.
First time since Aaron Burr anyway. :-)
RELAX SNUGS Dick Cheney is one that accidently shot a friend
"we also have bunnies -- we feed them 2 sliced apples every day. it's like they've become our pets. they don't even run anymore."
Hmmm DUer has already taken the rabbit's foot for the 2006 election eh?
...You say the quail had just flushed...What does that mean?
He was shot with bird shot...at least it wasn't a real gun.
LOL
LOL! They got so many conspiracies on their own...why add to them?!!
Texas bob-whites I have known flush straight up in a spherical arrangement when you're almost about to step on them, and then break away in every three-dimensional direction. Cheney must have been trying a long shot on a bird lighting-out close to the ground, which is a low probability kill shot, given the way they bob and weave. If you don't nail a bird or two (or even three with luck and a semi-auto) within a few seconds and more-or-less overhead, forget it.
I do understand yet do not accept how this can happen....every hunter MUST live & breath complete safety....this includes the shooter & the others surrounding the shooter...
It has always been simple to me...don't step in front of a shotgun.... Well DUH!
:-) It does help his negotiating power overseas, don't you think?
LOL...
Because it is so much fun to watch them chase their own tales.
Understood...I and Texas born and a Quail hunter since the 50s... Each hunter in the line has a radius to respect....
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