Hunter mistakenly kills woman (Page 1 of 6)
Posted: Yesterday 6:43:48 PM EDT
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I love shooting but am not a big hunter at all. Does this happen often? https://abcnews.com/US/hunter-charged-manslaughter-shooting-woman-mistook-deer-police/story?id=136602964 A 74-year-old hunter has been arrested and charged in a homicide investigation in which police allege he fatally shot a woman in Delaware whom he allegedly mistook for a deer. Walter Moorhead of Salisbury, Maryland, was charged with manslaughter and related crimes after allegedly shooting the woman while hunting Friday evening in a field near Ellendale, Delaware, according to the Delaware State Police. "The preliminary investigation revealed that the victim was walking through the field with a man and two children while Moorhead was hunting deer from a ground blind. Moorhead believed he saw a deer and fired his rifle, striking the victim," the Delaware State Police said in a statement. The victim was identified Sunday as 39-year-old Santos Maria Chilel Soto of Georgetown, Delaware, according to the state police. The incident unfolded around 7:40 p.m. on Friday, according to the state police, who said troopers who were called to the scene provided lifesaving medical care to the victim, who was later pronounced dead at a hospital. Troopers took Moorehead into custody after a preliminary investigation "determined that he had fired the shot that struck the victim," according to the state police. In addition to the charge of felony manslaughter, Moorhead is facing three counts of first-degree reckless endangerment, as well as a count of possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, state police said. Moorhead was arraigned by the Justice of the Peace Court and released after posting a $43,000 cash bond, according to the state police. |
| Happens literally all the time. I can't tell you how many times I've mistaken people for deer. I'll have the perfect site picture on them, finger on the trigger, vibrating with excitement, and all of a sudden the deer takes a drag off a cigarette. Wtf? Deer don't do tha... Dammit, it's another human! |
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Originally Posted By Vne: Happens literally all the time. I can't tell you how many times I've mistaken people for deer. I'll have the perfect site picture on them, finger on the trigger, vibrating with excitement, and all of a sudden the deer takes a drag off a cigarette. Wtf? Deer don't do tha... Dammit, it's another human! And the shooter is 74 years old, he wouldn't see the cigarette... |
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RIP, condolences to the family. Yeah, be sure of target is a rule. Why are families walking through the woods during hunting season? Why was he hunting land that had families in it? |
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It is a tragedy but what was the situation where a family was walking through an area where there are hunters? I do know a few areas where that could happen but just a small amount of sense keeps this sort of thing from happening. Assuming it was truly a mistake what would be a legit punishment? |
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Originally Posted By Rat_Patrol: RIP, condolences to the family. Yeah, be sure of target is a rule. Why are families walking through the woods during hunting season? Why was he hunting land that had families in it? |
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Originally Posted By Vne: Happens literally all the time. I can't tell you how many times I've mistaken people for deer. I'll have the perfect site picture on them, finger on the trigger, vibrating with excitement, and all of a sudden the deer takes a drag off a cigarette. Wtf? Deer don't do tha... Dammit, it's another human! Attached File |
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Originally Posted By GaryM: It is a tragedy but what was the situation where a family was walking through an area where there are hunters? I do know a few areas where that could happen but just a small amount of sense keeps this sort of thing from happening. Assuming it was truly a mistake what would be a legit punishment? 
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 It's very rare that this happens. There are only around 60 hunting fatalities every year, and the majority of those are either self inflicted, or hitting someone else in the hunting party due to unsafe firearm handling. It's highly unusual that a hunter intentionally pulls the trigger on someone mistaking them for wild game. |
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Originally Posted By PacNW5: I love shooting but am not a big hunter at all. Does this happen often? Often enough. Especially when there's beer at deer camp. When I was a kid, my hunters ed teacher was an old man that had been teaching hunters ed for forty years. Because when he was young-ish, he was at deer camp, went to site in his rifle, missed the target on the tree, and the bullet flew far enough to hit a kid that he didn't even know was there.  It wrecked the guy so badly that he spent the entire rest of his life teaching hunter's ed to try and keep anything like that from happening again.But also, the absolute idiocy that I've seen from deer hunters is astounding. Most deer hunters are fine, or fine-ish, but I swear, the deer hunt seems to ALWAYS bring out the bottom quintile of the intelligence range. You don't get that so much with harder or more involved hunts, but deer hunting sure brings out the dumb ones. Oh gosh, now I've getting flashbacks to discussions in junior high... "My dad shot a deer, but it ran away and he couldn't find it." "What did he shoot it with?" "A .22." Shit like that. We would sometimes just watch other properties near us during deer season as a kid. Every frickin' year we'd see at least a couple of incidents of police showing up, because hunters went onto private property, within 30 yards or so of people's houses, and were walking around hunting. And even though it was rural, it was still IN THE CITY LIMITS. |
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Originally Posted By DmacRTCo: No it doesn’t. Hunting accidents are statistical anomalies. Originally Posted By DmacRTCo: Originally Posted By Monsterbishi: Happens entirely too often :-( No it doesn’t. Hunting accidents are statistical anomalies. Not sure if serious or just misinformed? |
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Originally Posted By Mike_314: No to be too pendantic but, no they didn't. Please show your work. |
wingsnthings:
Isn't this what we all have to look forward to? Participate in mindless threads and mental illness sets in? Then out of desperation we request lock on our accounts for relief?
Isn't this what we all have to look forward to? Participate in mindless threads and mental illness sets in? Then out of desperation we request lock on our accounts for relief?
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Originally Posted By GaryM: It is a tragedy but what was the situation where a family was walking through an area where there are hunters? I do know a few areas where that could happen but just a small amount of sense keeps this sort of thing from happening. Assuming it was truly a mistake what would be a legit punishment? I take my kids for walks in the woods year round. It's important to me they feel comfortable there and experiance it as the peaceful, centering place I do. We wear orange before during and after hunting season. The kids are also super loud. I'm happy for people to hunt public land, but it is public land, not a free fire zone. Don't get upset we are scaring the deer and deer god, know your target! |
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Originally Posted By Windustsearch: People walk through and work in the woods in all seasons. They are not closed off for hunting. I have no idea why people think they are or where they got that idea. Originally Posted By Windustsearch: Originally Posted By Rat_Patrol: RIP, condolences to the family. Yeah, be sure of target is a rule. Why are families walking through the woods during hunting season? Why was he hunting land that had families in it? No kidding We walk through huntable woods year round |
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Originally Posted By tac556: A lot of “hunters” are fucking morons and/or drunks. Guess why hunter orange exists? Because of way too many incidents like this over the years. Never wear tan/brown colored clothes in the woods during deer season… I put a orange vest on my dog when it hits fall here and wear a vest myself while packing heavy while I take my daily walks. it's not the locals, it's the dicks from some large city that see's some empty land and thinks it's OK for them to hunt there. And the bowhunters are far worse then the gun hunters. |
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Originally Posted By tac556: A lot of “hunters” are fucking morons and/or drunks. Guess why hunter orange exists? Because of way too many incidents like this over the years. Never wear tan/brown colored clothes in the woods during deer season… This. Buck fever is a thing and you DO NOT want to be out in the woods on opening or closing day of deer season. Fucking moron fudds start blindly blasting into bushes as soon as they hear something rustle in the brush. |
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Originally Posted By RTX: Obligatory Hunter's old lady pic. You're welcome. https://d3i6fh83elv35t.cloudfront.net/static/2024/06/2024-06-06T124950Z_549277529_RC2O58AXY5JX_RTRMADP_3_USA-BIDEN-HUNTER-CHARGES-1200x800.jpg Originally Posted By RTX: Originally Posted By HRoark87: I thought this would be about the crack head  Obligatory Hunter's old lady pic. You're welcome. https://d3i6fh83elv35t.cloudfront.net/static/2024/06/2024-06-06T124950Z_549277529_RC2O58AXY5JX_RTRMADP_3_USA-BIDEN-HUNTER-CHARGES-1200x800.jpg |
"During the second 100 days, we will design, build and open a library dedicated to my first 100 days." -Barack Obama, May 9 2009
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Originally Posted By RTX: Obligatory Hunter's old lady pic. You're welcome. https://d3i6fh83elv35t.cloudfront.net/static/2024/06/2024-06-06T124950Z_549277529_RC2O58AXY5JX_RTRMADP_3_USA-BIDEN-HUNTER-CHARGES-1200x800.jpg Originally Posted By RTX: Originally Posted By HRoark87: I thought this would be about the crack head Obligatory Hunter's old lady pic. You're welcome. https://d3i6fh83elv35t.cloudfront.net/static/2024/06/2024-06-06T124950Z_549277529_RC2O58AXY5JX_RTRMADP_3_USA-BIDEN-HUNTER-CHARGES-1200x800.jpg |
"During the second 100 days, we will design, build and open a library dedicated to my first 100 days." -Barack Obama, May 9 2009
I suggest we trade a question mark in for a maybe.
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Originally Posted By Kharn: And the shooter is 74 years old, he wouldn't see the cigarette... Originally Posted By Kharn: Originally Posted By Vne: Happens literally all the time. I can't tell you how many times I've mistaken people for deer. I'll have the perfect site picture on them, finger on the trigger, vibrating with excitement, and all of a sudden the deer takes a drag off a cigarette. Wtf? Deer don't do tha... Dammit, it's another human! And the shooter is 74 years old, he wouldn't see the cigarette... I've never come that close, but I had a deer staring at me 15 minutes before shooting time. Wondered if I dared risk it and take the shot. I didn't shoot. 10 minutes later(still 5 minutes before shooting time) the light changed. It wasn't a deer at all, just a bush that was the right shape to look like a head and antlers in the right light. It really is unreal what your mind makes you see when you want to see it. ETA-Stephen King's book Dreamcatcher has a close call like this in it. Guy is hunting from an elevated stand, sees a doe and focuses on her eye. Raises his rifle and waits JUST long enough, and he realizes the doe's eye is the black button on a man's brown coat. For those who don't hunt it's hard to explain just how it works, but as much as us gun guys hate Stephen King, that particular scene is the best explanition of deer fever I've ever seen. Friendly fire incidents in combat happen the same way. |
WARNING-this post contains words or thoughts that may at some point be discovered by the state of California to cause cancer.
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Originally Posted By GaryM: It is a tragedy but what was the situation where a family was walking through an area where there are hunters? I do know a few areas where that could happen but just a small amount of sense keeps this sort of thing from happening. Assuming it was truly a mistake what would be a legit punishment? A small amount of sense like not shooting something that is not definitely a deer? |
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Originally Posted By Rat_Patrol: RIP, condolences to the family. Yeah, be sure of target is a rule. Why are families walking through the woods during hunting season? Why was he hunting land that had families in it? Article says she was in a field, which should have made target ID easier. |
| Had a friend a few years back that told me when he was a young lad out with dad at hunting camp in Minnesota he heard a shot and a bullet whistling through the brush just in front of him. Scared the bejesus out of him. He made his way back to camp, one of the other hunters was telling how he got a 'sound shot' off a little earlier, but didn't hit anything. |
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Originally Posted By Mike_314: No to be too pendantic but, no they didn't. And the hunter did not identify his target before he shot. Originally Posted By Mike_314: troopers who were called to the scene provided lifesaving medical care to the victim, who was later pronounced dead at a hospital. And the hunter did not identify his target before he shot. “Lifesaving care” is defined by intent, not the result. Much like “assault with a deadly weapon” does not require death of the victim. |
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I was working a deer check station at an old country store in the mountains of VA while in college, and a nimrod showed up mid-morning on opening day and was wanting to buy a box of 'thuty-thuty'. The men sitting around the coal stove asked him if he got any deer and he said all he had were 'sound shots'. He'd hear some rustling behind the rhododendron bushes and blast away but never found anything when he went to check. He ran out of ammo. Another nimrod said he had a couple of them also. I never deer hunted opening day of rifle season on public lands since then. I also stay way away from thickets of rhododendron, palmetto, etc. unless we're loudly chasing rabbits or hogs with dogs. |
| Back during COVID, I drew a archery only permit for local Corps of Engineers land to hunt turkeys. I had to contend with old ladies walking yappy dogs, mountain bikers, and idiots Target practicing with handguns. Public land hunting is a circus. If this was public land, I can see how there might be people out there, but how his mistook a lady for a deer… no idea. |
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Originally Posted By GaryM: It is a tragedy but what was the situation where a family was walking through an area where there are hunters? I do know a few areas where that could happen but just a small amount of sense keeps this sort of thing from happening. Assuming it was truly a mistake what would be a legit punishment? They were taking a shortcut through the woods on the way to buy cigarettes. |
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As an aside, note that in addition to the actual crime/charge (manslaughter), they stacked on 3xReckless endangerment for each person he didn’t shoot, felony (the original crime) with a firearm, etc. Then when it comes to sentencing…time for each. While I’m all for law, order and strict punishment, that is a two edged sword: successfully defend yourself with a firearm and watch the charges stack up. Murder, manslaughter, ag assault, etc. |
I wanted a mission, and for my sins, they gave me one.
No rules today, sport…just orders.
It’s not about how many people you kill, it’s about how many you save.
No rules today, sport…just orders.
It’s not about how many people you kill, it’s about how many you save.
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A quick internet search reveals there are about 61 hunting related deaths per year. This includes things like falling out of tree stands. No, it does not happen a lot. Yes, there are morons who shoot at sounds or vague movements. I personally knew a man who had buckshot embedded right against his spine for the rest of his life because some inbred Neanderthal shot him while he was field dressing a deer literally in the middle of an open field. Inbred booger-eating banjo picker said he fired "Cuz I seen antlers." The man he shot was wearing a blaze orange full-body jumpsuit. Yes it happens. Yes idiots are out there. No it's not common. |
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Originally Posted By MHowski: Not for deer with any kind of firearm. |
I wanted a mission, and for my sins, they gave me one.
No rules today, sport…just orders.
It’s not about how many people you kill, it’s about how many you save.
No rules today, sport…just orders.
It’s not about how many people you kill, it’s about how many you save.
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Originally Posted By Local: I take my kids for walks in the woods year round. It's important to me they feel comfortable there and experiance it as the peaceful, centering place I do. We wear orange before during and after hunting season. The kids are also super loud. I'm happy for people to hunt public land, but it is public land, not a free fire zone. Don't get upset we are scaring the deer and deer god, know your target! Originally Posted By Local: Originally Posted By GaryM: It is a tragedy but what was the situation where a family was walking through an area where there are hunters? I do know a few areas where that could happen but just a small amount of sense keeps this sort of thing from happening. Assuming it was truly a mistake what would be a legit punishment? I take my kids for walks in the woods year round. It's important to me they feel comfortable there and experiance it as the peaceful, centering place I do. We wear orange before during and after hunting season. The kids are also super loud. I'm happy for people to hunt public land, but it is public land, not a free fire zone. Don't get upset we are scaring the deer and deer god, know your target! 100% If you see someone on public land you should be happy they're using it. They won't vote to turn it into a data center. And if you're hunting deer, like know what deer look like and shit. |
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 Getting shot while turkey hunting.. |
Hunter mistakenly kills woman (Page 1 of 6)
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