WASHINGTON – 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, an Austin attorney, was in stable condition in the intensive care unit of a Corpus Christi hospital Sunday, said Yvonne Wheeler, hospital spokeswoman.
Katharine Armstrong, the south Texas ranch’s owner, said Sunday that Whittington was “alert and doing fine.”
The vice president’s office did not disclose the Saturday accident until the day after it happened. Cheney’s spokeswoman, Lea Anne McBride, said the vice president’s office did not tell reporters about the accident Saturday because they were deferring to Armstrong to handle the announcement of what happened on her property.
Armstrong said that Cheney was using a 28-gauge shotgun and that Whittington was about 30 yards away when he was hit.
Armstrong said Whittington, 78, was mostly injured on his right side, with the pellets hitting his cheek, neck and chest.
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.”
Armstrong said emergency personnel traveling with Cheney tended to Whittington until the ambulance arrived. Armstrong said Whittington was bleeding and Cheney was very apologetic.
“It broke the skin,” she said of the shotgun pellets. “It knocked him silly. But he was fine. He was talking. His eyes were open. It didn’t get in his eyes or anything like that.”
Cheney’s spokeswoman, Lea Anne McBride, said the vice president met with Whittington and his wife at the hospital on Sunday. Cheney “was pleased to see that he’s doing fine and in good spirits,” she said.
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