February 14, 2012
From Spokesman.com
Officer Curt Wood investigated a hunting incident situation in
Lincoln County, where a 13 year old male was accidentally shot in
the face by his 13 year old hunting companion.
The two
subjects had been hunting rabbits in the Wilbur area, when a rabbit
was observed running into some old irrigation pipes that had been
piled up.
The shooting victim went to the far end of the
irrigation pipe in an attempt to keep the rabbit from running out.
His companion, who was hunting with a .22 caliber rifle, stayed
on the other end of the pipes. The victim attempted to keep the
rabbit in the pipe by inserting a blow (dart) gun into his end of
the pipe. The victim then decided to visually check the pipe, to see
what had happened to the rabbit. When the victim knelt down to look
in the pipe, his hunting companion decided to take a shot at the
rabbit at about the same time. At the time of the shot, the victim
could not be seen by the shooter.
The bullet struck the
victim near the top of his nose, entered his sinus cavity, and
actually hit and bounced off of his C-1 neck vertebra. It was later
determined that the bullet had probably struck the rabbit first, and
then fragmented as it travelled down the irrigation pipe. The
shooter was able to transport the victim back home on his quad, and
the boy was rushed to a hospital in Spokane.
The victim’s
parents later told Officer Wood that if the fragmented bullet had
taken a slightly different path, or if the entire bullet had struck
him, it would have killed him instantly.
The victim will
have to undergo surgery next month to remove the bullet fragment.
Doctors said the boy should make a complete recovery.
Officer Wood warned the shooter for not possessing a valid small
game hunting license.
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