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US VP accidentally shoots fellow hunter
(AP)
Updated: 2006-02-13 06:45
US 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.
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.
Vice President Dick
Cheney speaks to the Conservative Political Action Conference dinner at
the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, Thursday, Feb. 9, 2006.
[AP] |
He was described as in stable condition by 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 was with
Whittington and his wife at the hospital on Sunday.
The shooting was first reported by the Corpus Christi Caller-Times. The vice
president's office did not disclose the accident until nearly 24 hours 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."
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