Woman fatally shot by hunter who mistook her for deer

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http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/woman-fatally-shot-hunter-mistook-deer-article-1.3654778

 

A hunter in western New York fatally shot a 43-year-old woman after he mistook her for a deer, authorities said.

Rosemary Billquist was taking her dogs for a walk in her hometown of Sherman near the Pennsylvania border on Wednesday when she was shot once by Thomas Jadlowski.

Jadlowski heard her scream and called 911. He stayed with Billquist until emergency personnel arrived.

Billquist was later pronounced dead at a nearby hospital in Pennsylvania.

“They tried saving her,” husband Jamie Billquist told the Buffalo News on Friday. “It was just too bad…. It’s horrific. It will be with me the rest of my life.”

“This is a horrific incident,” Chautauqua County Sheriff Joe Gerace told the newspaper. “….This destroyed two lives.”

The shooting occurred at around 5:30 p.m., about 40 minutes after sunset, when officials say it’s illegal to hunt.

 Jamie Billquist was told about the shooting after he heard his dogs barking and saw an ambulance, according to the newspaper. He went with his wife to the hospital.

“She was always out to help somebody,” he told the Buffalo News. “She never wanted credit and was always quiet about it. She’s just an angel. An angel for sure.”

Jadlowski has not been charged, but the investigation is ongoing.

“Hunters have to understand there are other people using trails, using parks in areas where we as sportsmen hunt,” Dale Dunkelberger of the state Department of Environmental Conservation’s hunter education program told the Buffalo News.

“In this case, it appears from what I gathered this was after sunset, and he shouldn’t have been out there hunting after sunset. You’re done. That’s the law.”

 

3 thoughts on “Woman fatally shot by hunter who mistook her for deer”

  1. Maybe the McKittrick Policy won’t work for him. When it comes to killing the wrong animal, the hunters can plead stupid and get by.

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  2. Reblogged this on UDdeer and commented:
    UD police say it’s OK to walk on public lands even if the “predator” sits in his tree stand waiting for a deer. You don’t look like a deer to real hunters, they say.

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  3. Hi please disregard my comment on your other post..I’m just getting caught up on my emails I now see you beat me to this..I should’ve known you’d be on top with headlines—you need to be when you do what you do. This just another senseless tragedy that could’ve been prevented. Hunting has no place in a civilized society & should be banned for the safety of everyone.

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