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.
According to ABC radio news this morning, Cheney shot his lawyer friend with "buckshot".
28 ga. buckshot.
I've never seen that load available over the counter.
Great post,
Thanks
By the way, it's cool, and I love your name, Mary -- my darling wife's name also ........ 33 years of wedded bliss.
;-)
There is something perfectly lyrical and pure to me about that name.
They are already in a feeding frenzy that Cheney's people tried to cover this up.
So what's the bag limit on lawyers in Texas?
Yeah....Cheney shot a lawyer ...the problem is what?
Yeah....Cheney shot a lawyer ...the problem is what?
In politics, that's always the primal, knee-jerk reaction.
Bottom line: no excuse, Cheney was careless with his shot.
Thank goodness the injuries were minor.
Big time whoops!
Thanks, sorry I missed it.
Cheney's first attempt at tort reform.
DING! DING! DING! DING! WE HAVE A WINNER!!!!
I started hunting when I was ten years old (don't hunt any more, but not because I think hunting is wrong).
And my dad made it absolutely clear that I was to only shoot when I knew I wouldn't be hitting something accidentally. You need always be aware of where everyone in your party is and where any nearby roads or buildings are - especially with quail which stay low to the ground.
I thinks this does not speak well of Cheney or Whittington that they are just jumping out of a car and shooting willy-nilly at quail without observing any kind of caution. And I think it was also wrong that it was not reported sooner.
So now we'll both get flamed by those who just defend Bush or Cheney without thinking through the entire story.
Yeah, this does not speak well of him. And I am not willing to see this spun away. It shows a certain lack of self-control and that's not good at all.
The problem is that it shows he doesn't have the discipline to hunt in a safe manner. They just jump out of a car and go off in whatever direction after two coveys of quail with no regard for where the rest of their party is.
And don't blame Whittington - in the end, the shooter is responsible for making sure he is firing in a safe manner. Cheney failed to do that.
Yeah, I think this is a pretty serious incident. The guy could have been killed because Cheney was more concerned about bagging a quail than about hunter safety.
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