GRUNDY COUNTY, TN – A deadly hunting accident in Grundy County is now being investigated by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.
Grundy County Sheriff Clint Shrum says deputies were called out to Northcutts Cove Road for a hunting accident.
“When deputies arrived they found one man giving another man CPR, asking for help, just didn’t know exactly what was going on at the time,” said Sheriff Clint Shrum.
They found 44-year-old Chad Killian with a gunshot wound to his upper body. Killian was taken to the hospital and later died from his injuries.
Sheriff Shrum says he was with another man at the time of the accident. 45-year-old Robin Smartt told deputies Killian was shot during a hunting accident, but the Sheriff says “not all of the facts add up,” and now wants the TBI to investigate.
“The initial story that we got was that somebody may have fallen out of a tree stand,” Sheriff Shrum said, “Once we got into the investigation we found out that that was not the case.”
Smartt told another deputy they were hunting coyotes that were killing their chickens.
So with conflicting stories, The TBI is taking over the death investigation, and the TWRA is looking into the fact that guns were being used during archery season.
“That’s why we contacted TWRA because there was shotguns involved,” Sheriff Shrum said, “So we have them looking into that side of why these men were in the woods with shotguns.”
Channel 3 spoke to family members at the home on Northcutts Cove Road. The family hopes the TBI’s investigation brings them some more answers, and brings the family peace.
We will update this story as soon as we get more information.
GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (CBS4)– Wildlife officers say that a hunter was not attacked by a bear, despite claims that he was injured when a bear attacked him.
Officers with Colorado Parks and Wildlife investigated reports of the bear attack and mauling on the Grand Mesa on Saturday evening.
A hunter in his late 60s was parked on his ATV on Forest Service Road 105 above Powderhorn Ski Resort when he said a bear approached and attacked, causing him to drive over a small cliff into large rocks below. He suffered extensive but non-life threatening injuries.
“We investigated this incident thoroughly over the last three days, including the use of specially trained dogs from the USDA’s Wildlife Services, examination of the injuries, and forensic crime scene examination and we found conclusive evidence that a bear did not attack this individual,” said Colorado Parks and Wildlife Area Wildlife Manager JT Romatzke in a statement. “This individual is certain that he saw a bear. We are not discounting that he saw something that caused him to react.”
“People get very concerned about wildlife conflicts, and it is not helpful to cause unneeded alarm,” said Romatzke. “Just like a typical crime scene, all possible conflicts with wildlife require extensive investigation to come to accurate, factual conclusions. It’s important for the public to get the right information, especially when it comes to issues that potentially affect their safety.”
A 50-year-old man is in the hospital after a hunting accident near the Monocacy River in Frederick County Saturday evening.
According to the Maryland Department of Natural Resources Police, Patrick Knight from Knoxville, Md. was hunting near the 2800 block of Monocacy Bottom Road, when we fell nearly 20 feet from his tree stand and landed on his back.
Frederick County Fire and Rescue, as well as Carroll Manor Fire Company, brought Knight by air boat to the nearest access point for him to be taken to the Suburban Hospital in Montgomery County.
Knight is currently in the hospital with severe injuries.
The Maryland Department of Natural Resources Police are continuing to investigate.
An East Texas man was hospitalized early Thursday morning after a bullet he fired at an armadillo ricocheted back at his head, KLTV reported.
The man shot at the armadillo just before 3 a.m. on Thursday after seeing it on the freeway in the town of Marietta, Texas, according to Cass County Sheriff official.
The bullet ricocheted back at his head. The man was treated for minor injuries. Local reports are unclear as to the condition of the armadillo.
This was the second armadillo-shooting-followed-by-ricochet of the year. The first, in Georgia in April, injured the shooter’s mother-in-law. The man shot the armadillo, the bullet bounced and then passed through a fence and into her mobile home while she sat in a recliner. Her injuries were minor but the armadillo did not survive.
One person was shot after getting into an argument with hunters northeast of Munson Saturday night.
According to witness accounts, there were several individuals deer hunting the area of Green Road and Yearling Lane. A confrontation began between the group of hunters and and another individual, the Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office said.
At one point during the confrontation, a gun was pointed at the group of hunters when a shot was heard. The individual who was pointing the gun at the group was shot with a high powered rifle during the incident, the Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office said. The victim was airlifted to an area hospital.
The victim remained in the hospital late Sunday recovering from a gunshot wound; their exact condition was not available.
Detectives with the Santa Rosa County Sheriffs are actively working this investigation. The individual who shot the victim was identified and is being questioned about the incident.
DES MOINES, Iowa — Here’s some news that has law enforcement officials and lawmakers scratching their heads:
Iowa is granting permits to acquire or carry guns in public to people who are legally or completely blind.
No one questions the legality of the permits. State law does not allow sheriffs to deny an Iowan the right to carry a weapon based on physical ability.
The quandary centers squarely on public safety. Advocates for the disabled and Iowa law enforcement officers disagree over whether it’s a good idea for visually disabled Iowans to have weapons.
On one side: People such as Cedar County Sheriff Warren Wethington, who demonstrated for The Des Moines Register how blind people can be taught to shoot guns. And Jane Hudson, executive director of Disability Rights Iowa, who says blocking visually impaired people from the right to obtain weapon permits would violate the Americans with Disabilities Act. That federal law generally prohibits different treatment based on disabilities
On the other side: People such as Dubuque County Sheriff Don Vrotsos, who said he wouldn’t issue a permit to someone who is blind. And Patrick Clancy, superintendent of the Iowa Braille and Sight Saving School, who says guns may be a rare exception to his philosophy that blind people can participate fully in life.
Private gun ownership — even hunting — by visually impaired Iowans is nothing new. But the practice of visually impaired residents legally carrying firearms in public became widely possible thanks to gun permit changes that took effect in Iowa in 2011.
“It seems a little strange, but the way the law reads we can’t deny them (a permit) just based on that one thing,” said Sgt. Jana Abens, a spokeswoman for the Polk County Sheriff’s Department, referring to a visual disability.
Polk County officials say they’ve issued weapons permits to at least three people who can’t legally drive and were unable to read the application forms or had difficulty doing so because of visual impairments.
And sheriffs in three other counties — Jasper, Kossuth and Delaware — say they have granted permits to residents who they believe have severe visual impairments.
“I’m not an expert in vision,” Delaware County Sheriff John LeClere said. “At what point do vision problems have a detrimental effect to fire a firearm? If you see nothing but a blurry mass in front of you, then I would say you probably shouldn’t be shooting something.”
Training the visually impaired
In one Iowa county, blind residents who want weapons would likely receive special training.
Wethington, the Cedar County sheriff, has a legally blind daughter who plans to obtain a permit to carry when she turns 21 in about two years. He demonstrated for the Register how he would train blind people who want to carry a gun.
“If sheriffs spent more time trying to keep guns out of criminals’ hands and not people with disabilities, their time would be more productive,” Wethington said as he and his daughter took turns practice shooting with a semi-automatic handgun on private property in rural Cedar County.
The number of visually impaired or blind Iowans who can legally carry weapons in public is unknown because that information is not collected by the state or county sheriffs who issue the permits.
Clancy, superintendent of the Iowa Braille and Sight Saving School, said the range of sight among people who are classified as legally blind varies greatly. He believes there are situations where such applicants can safely handle a gun.
Yesterday a loyal reader sent the following comment in response to my post, Top Ten Retorts to Hunter Fallacies: “Trying to talk with people who won’t listen takes us nowhere. They are going to hunt and their mythology and ideology that excuse the killing are the voices they hear.”
Well, I agree—I’ve known that for a long time now. The fact is I never really write anything in hopes of changing hunters or talking them out of their blood sport.
I know that killing animals is too much in their blood (so to speak) to expect them to change for the better. As if to prove this point, a typical hunter tried (unsuccessfully) to leave this comment to a post about a man shooting and killing his grandson in a hunting accident. It started out like so many others, with “You people…” (a dead giveaway that it’s going to be from a hunter, and therefore unworthy of approval): “…are fucking idiots. This grandfather is suffering the worst tragedy of his natural life, and you people make it into a gun control issue. How do you think you all are able to go out and eat a steak dinner, or a chicken wrap, or any other meat product? Animals were put on earth to feed humans, period. Get your heads out of your asses, morons!!!”
If killing their own grandsons is not reason enough for them to swear off hunting, I don’t know what else to say to them.
Call it preaching to the choir, but the things I write, like the Top Ten Retorts to Hunter Fallacies are in fact either to inform or entertain my fellow advocates.
Not that they need to be educated. But the magnanimous few occasionally may need affirmation or a ready list of replies to the same old, worn out hunter dogma that have a little more thought behind them than, “Get your heads out of your asses, morons!”
DECATUR — Hunting at the Nine Bar Ranch in Decatur has brought so many families so much joy. And now, for one family, unspeakable sadness.
“I can’t imagine anything worse than this,” says Decatur ISD superintendent Rod Townsend.
Peppered with pictures of a little boy wearing a cowboy hat and a grin, a GoFundMe page starts to tell the tragedy. Wise County Sheriff David Walker says Saturday morning, 55-year-old Jim Bob Little, who owns the popular ranch, was hunting with his 9-year-old grandson, Callen Little. Walker says Callen left the hunting blind, unbeknownst to his grandfather, and somehow ended up in the path of his grandfather’s shotgun. He died after being shot once in the chest.
“It’s a tragedy,” Walker says. “No one wants to see any kids hurt no matter what it is.”
Callen Little died after being shot once in the chest by his grandfather while hunting at the Nine Bar Ranch. Lauren Zakalik has the story.
Walker says investigators remain on the case, but all signs point to this being nothing more than a heartbreaking accident. Hunting, Walker says, is part of the fabric of so many families here.
A man in New Caledonia has accidentally shot dead his cousin on a hunting trip – the second fatal shooting incident in the the territory in the past month.
The victim – a 35-year-old man – was hit in the neck and died at the scene in the mountains in the territory’s north.
Last month, a woman died after she was accidenatlly hit in the leg by a shot fired by her husband.
Last year, three people were reported killed as a result of a hunting accident.
There has been concern over the spread of firearms in recent years, with estimates of there being about one gun per two inhabitants.
Updated 2.51pm: A 16-year-old boy is dead after a hunting incident near Whakatane this morning.
Bay of Plenty Police District Command Centre’s Sergeant Dennis Murphy says police were alerted to the incident around 8 eight o’clock.
“A 16 year old male was duck hunting, and while hunting a firearm was discharged. As a result of that he is now unfortunately deceased.” [Imagine, a firearm discharging while hunting…]
Whakatane CIB are investigating the death at Matata but are treating it as a hunting incident.
The boy was one of three teenagers duck shooting at Greig Road today.
Exposing the Big Game 