Story by Nora Mishanec
• 1d •
2 min read
NEW WINDSOR — A man was shot in the face Tuesday while turkey hunting in Orange County’s Stewart State Forest, State Police said in a statement.
The man called 911 around 11 a.m. to report that he had been struck with a specialized shotgun ammunition known as birdshot, police said. Paramedics airlifted him to Westchester Medical Center in stable condition.
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Investigators identified a shooting suspect whom police said was in custody as of Tuesday afternoon. It was unclear whether the victim and the shooter were hunting together at the time of the incident.
Also unclear was whether the shooter had been charged with a crime. State Police investigators based in Middletown are leading the investigation, but declined to answer questions about the case.
The shooting prompted a brief manhunt Tuesday involving at least nine law enforcement agencies, including state forest rangers, the Department of Environmental Conservation, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office, and the municipal police departments of the town of New Windsor, the village of Blooming Grove, the village of Maybrook, the town of Montgomery, the town of Woodbury and the town of Newburgh.
Stewart State Forest is one of the state’s most popular hunting destinations, according to the Department of Environmental Conservation, which manages the 6,700-acre preserve in New Windsor, about 11 miles west of Newburgh. Its game populations include white-tailed deer, pheasants, turkey, waterfowl and rabbits, the agency said. The forest is open to the public during the spring and summer months but closes for several months in the fall for big game hunting season.
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New York’s spring turkey hunting season opened May 1 and runs through May 31 in the state’s southern regions. Regulators shortened the season in 2015, citing declining turkey populations across the state.
On average, about 12 people are injured or killed each year in hunting-related shooting incidents, according to DEC data. About half of the shootings involve two people. The last turkey hunting-related shooting incident occurred in 2022.
Hunting accidents fell sharply in recent decades after the DEC began requiring first-time hunters and trappers to complete safety training and pass an exam as prerequisites to obtaining hunting or trapping licenses, a DEC spokesperson said.
Turkey hunters often wear camouflaged gear and use decoys to fool the fowl, though it was unclear whether the hunters were doing so on Tuesday.
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