Ugh. My stomach was in knots after reading this story. Can only imagine how the boy feels. Know your target people!


Hiker mistaken for a bear, killed by hunter

By Noelene Clark

Seattle Times staff reporter


A woman hiking on Sauk Mountain near Rockport was shot and killed Saturday morning by a boy who was hunting for a bear, Skagit County deputies said.

The 54-year-old woman, from Oso, in unincorporated Snohomish County, was hiking with a friend and stopped on the trail to put something in her backpack. The boy, from near Concrete, mistook the woman for a bear and fired one shot, according to the Skagit County Sheriff's Office.

After being alerted at about 10:30 a.m., search and rescue teams found the woman's body in steep terrain. The boy was accompanied by at least one adult, deputies said.

The Skagit County Sheriff's Office and an officer from the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife are investigating.

That is too bad for the kid. Something he weill have to carry around for the rest of his life. I hope to god the adult was there when it happened. Otherwise that kid is not going to be in too good of shape.

Somebody should have taught him to identify his target before pulling the trigger.

Stories like this make me sick to my stomach in so many way's.

I feel for the kid, the adult that was with him and expecially for the family of the deceased.

Be carefull out there evryone, something like this should never happen.

Yup that is a tough deal. I also feel for the three parties and the relatives. Nobody wins in this situation.

No kidding, the bad thing here is the adult probably was there and was telling the kid where to aim. Since there obviously is no way that the kid had good id on the target. Damn, I feel bad for the kid.

If the kid would have been told or pounded into him that there are more people out there than bear/deer/elk this may not have happened. Think people first.

I LIVE in Concrete GR, and this kid had attended every Hunter Safety event he could find...all he wanted to do was be a good hunter.

My daughter knows this young man, and tells me he is a great kid. Basically, she was wearing a dark colored jacket, bent over and he saw what looked like a black bear walking down a trail, and shot.

It sucks...and now he has to live with it, as does her family, also local.

ISO

He F'ed up big time.

sad for everyone involved.

Now the news is saying it was just the young hunter and his older 16 year old brother.
I'd say their parents are in for a lawsuit.

They make these things called spotting scopes or binoculars......

They make these things called brightly colored jackets when walking in the outdoors during hunting seasons.

Really, there can be no excuses for a tragedy like this.

It just all boils down to a lack of common sense on all parties involved.

that is one of the reasons i dont rifle hunt any more.had a few bullets come wizzing past to many times

I hope that they have this kid in counseling right now and are watching him very closely, otherwise this could be double tragedy.

As far as judging the kid give it a rest… accidental shootings happen even by people that live by and with the gun… I am always very careful.

And for those that haven’t hunted bear, I hope that if you ever run into one it is far enough away… the last one I shot was 39 yards and I have hunted my entire life and it still made my hair stand on end…

I feel for the families (both)… and pray and hope that this boy lives through it…

I'm with Parker - you have to positively identify what you are shooting at, not what you think you are shooting at. This was completely avoidable. Sad all around.

The really strange part of this story - "oso" is spanish for bear.

I am really sorry that this happened.

I also need to apologize for comments made about an effort being led by Representative Brian Blake. He is working to protect my boy's rights to continue hunting, and I overreacted based on a poorly written article. Brian took the time to call me today and I appreciate that.







My apologies.

Um...

What's that "thing" in the 2nd photo?

Kangaroo?
Chubacabra?
Montauk Monster?

Or, a rabbit?

Rabbit that suffered a bit of a head wound.

Good for you Dogfish!

First off excellent pictures and you sure have one lucky boy there.

I read your post last night and realized you "missread" the intent of the legislation. That is super cool that your rep not only read your remarks but called you! If only we all had such a relationship with our elected reps! Well done all around!!!!

Young man that fired the fatal shot in this case, was charged with some sort of man slaughter and sentenced to nine months juvi detention. Feel for both sides of the fence here. Hope the juvi nine months is filled with helping the kid out rather than being an outlet for some jackass to be an authoritaritive meathead. I am not saying the kid doesn't need some strong words but how you say something can be more important than the content being delivered.

He has not been sentenced yet. He deserves the right to go before a judge. 9 months is his possible penalty.

I for one hope he doesn't have to go to juvi. You know the kid learned his lesson. Heck he might never hunt again. I think juvi has a much better chance of screwing him up than doing any good.

I agree with sea strike and worded my entry poorly, he definitely deserves and is allotted a due process procedure.

They need to send the poor kid to councelling not juvi. I understand they have to do something but do you think putting the kid on trial is the right thing? He screwed up as bad as anyone can and will have to live with it for the rest of his life. Be scarred for life and dream about it every night. Now lets make him a felon and scar him some more. The media will be all over it. Shiat, lets put him on the front page as the poster child for anti-hunting groups. That will be justice. While we are at it, we could draw and quarter him too. This pros attorn needs more discreation.
Now they are also trying to put through a law that states no one under age can hunt alone. Use a terrible situation for a knee jerk reaction to take one more right away from us. If our kids cant go out and hunt when they are young they never will. This happens with adults occationally as well......Lets just ban hunting all together. We can name it after the women and peta will put a statue of her and pray to it every season on the day it happened. This could only happen in Wa.......well maybe Ca too.

I am concerned with any give aways in right, and they are attacking kid's rights to hunt (rep in Seattle wants stricter definition of hunting age that what Blake is proposing), who do not have a voice. Anyway, Brian Blake understands our concerns and is only proposing to change it back to what it had been in the past.

Brian attends our annual Ducks Unlimited event, and he attends regular meetings on behalf on hunters in the Grays Harbor area. I know this because I am at those meetings as well.

I can rest tonight knowing that most of us are very careful. As far as giving it a rest, he shot her in the head while she was stopped on a trail. You would think that in July while walking on a trail that no one would be stupid enough to hunt that close, or let a kid have a gun with no supervision. I wonder where his parents were?

First degree manslaughter. Estimated time in juvy jail is 9 months.

Not much for killing a person. IMO

Did you see it made the MSN home page yesterday. Makes me think about my son getting his license for the first time this year. Perhaps he will learn from this tragedy, I know i will remind him everytime he thinks about going hunting.

Not just on a trail, but on one of the most popular hiking trails in the county, on a summer weekend.

IMO, this proposal to restrict the age (again) is total over-reaction. Plenty of adults have made the same tragic mistake and are just as susceptible to "buck fever" as this kid.

Your opinion is fuked up!

Here is a young man who made a tragic mistake. Does anyone really think putting this kid away is going to help him?

That kid and the victims family will be impacted forever. Does the victims family feel that the kid should be locked up? If they do, they are more screwed up than The Hunt.

That kid needs counseling, he needs guidence and love. He is not going to find the help he needs in a juvenile institution.

If anyone should be punished, maybe it should be his mentors who taught the ethics of hunting to that kid.

I have a 13 year old who is going in to his second season. He carried BB guns to show me that he could properly handle a firearm. I have taught him that you never point a firearm at something unless you plan to kill it. And you never point a firearm at something before you have made positive identification.

There are proper ways to handle a firearm and be a ethical hunter. It is up to all of us who have been out there for years to teach!

This was a tragic mistake, but condeming that young man will only create more problems for him.

It was drizzling at the time, so visibility was somewhat limited. It was not a sunny day. She was putting away her bright blue coat into her back pack. No mention was made to her other garments. Easy to armchair quarter back it. The media has not provided all of the facts, only portions of it. Were her garments under the blue jacket black or brown? Don't know, but the media doesn't provide that data.

Ever not hit exactly where you intended to shoot? I have, in the past, but now I usually hit within an inch of my intended impact zone. In my early years hunting, I have been as far as 12 inches off on a moving animal. 26 big game animals later I am usually spot on, moving or not. I don't think the teenager was trying for a head shot at 120 yards with limited visability. Reality check.

I made Hunter pass up a 32 yard shot on a 350+ bear this year because it wasn't right. Log was in the way for a clean shot at vitals. Hunter was sitting in a chair, rifle resting on a bipod. I wish I had been there coaching this boy. I wish someone else had been coaching this boy other than his 16 year old brother.

It still pisses me off that one accident in 25 years (non-hunting victim) causes a rewrite of any law. Consider how many hikers and mountain climbers have died in the past two years in Washington to the number of hunters. 10 to 1, or better. You don't see people clammoring for any laws regarding hikers and mountain climbers be changed. Ass hattery at its finest. How many teens die each year due to drunk driving in this state? I have contempt for most politicians, but there are a few good ones, like Brian. (Sh!t, come to think of it, I'm a politician)

If I had my way, people who lived in cities with more than 15,000 would need a permit to leave the city.

Amen.

As fast as that legislation hit the news with all those statistics, it seems like it was written a while ago and the politician has been waiting for the "right" time to ram it through...

Unfortunate for all involved.

Population of Port Angeles, WA = 18,000+

Population of Aberdeen, WA = 16,000+

I think some people are going to think your idea is bullsh!t, Andy.

More room for me in the woods!

OK, raise it to 20,000... easy fix!

Okay. McCleary has 1,555.