Posted on 02/16/2006 11:12:36 AM PST by areafiftyone
FEBRUARY 16--Five days after Vice President Dick Cheney shot a hunting partner, a Texas sheriff today released his department's report on the incident, which investigators have formally classified as an accident. A copy of the Kenedy County Sheriff's Department report, released this afternoon by Sheriff Ramon Salinas, can be found below. The sheriff's report includes information provided to deputies by assorted witnesses as well as Cheney and Harry Whittington, the 78-year-old lawyer who was struck in the face, neck, and chest by the vice president's wayward birdshot. Cheney was interviewed Sunday morning, more than 14 hours after the Saturday afternoon incident. There is no indication in the sheriff's report that he was questioned about alcohol consumption by Chief Deputy Gilberto San Miguel, who interviewed the vice president and authored the report. Whittington, who was questioned Monday at a Corpus Christi hospital, declined to have his Q&A session taped and told investigators that "foremost there was no alcohol during the hunt" and that everyone in the hunting party was wearing proper "blaze orange" attire. In a Fox News interview yesterday, Cheney said that he downed one beer at lunch Saturday afternoon. On Tuesday, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department issued the first report on the Cheney shooting incident. (5 pages)
I am only going to post this much because the report is much too long. You can click on the link to read all of it.
(Excerpt) Read more at thesmokinggun.com ...
Since it never would have made the news, who do you expect it would have been known, let alone "treated"?
I don't recall the specifics, yet I understand Secret Service called the proper authorities - possibly the local sheriff. A different law enforcement agency may have heard radio chatter and drove out to the ranch. The gate keepers at the ranch hadn't even heard about the shooting yet and turned them away.
I didn't know you warrant Secret Service level protection - nice to meet you.
:-)
Did someone make sure the AP got this first, before anyone else saw it? If not then we will hear about it for a week or so.
It must be some new rule that the AP has to be notified of everything before anyone else.
Does the AP first rule give anyone besides me any onery ideas? How does one contact the AP with a story? I may have some things to report to them.
The kenedy county sheriff said he would have been finished sooner, but he had to pull an Oldsmobile from the pond.
Near midnight on Chappaquiddick Island, a drunk and definitely married Senator Ted Kennedy takes a right turn instead of a left. His car winds up skidding off Dike Bridge and is quickly submerged upside-down in salty Poucha Pond. His passenger, RFK office secretary Mary Jo Kopechne, is knocked into the back seat. Kennedy swims to safety, whereupon he fails to rescue his companion or even simply report the incident to anyone until the following morning. Because no autopsy is ever performed on Kopechne's body (her body had been promptly whisked out of state) it is uncertain how long it took her to drown, if she wasn't killed on impact. Likewise, it is never established whether Kopechne was pregnant or exhibited signs of recent sexual activity.
Just another proud moment in the history of the most corrupt demonRAT political family in America.
I've read conflicting reports but if the report on SG says its just the sherrif who decided to wait until the next day, then all I can say is that was very considerate of them.
How do you think FR would treat it if it happened to John Edwards?
That said, if it is standard procedure for the police to give people a day or so to pull themselves together before looking the interviews start, then this really is nothing unusual. I'm just surprised that's how the police do things, thats all.
It would appear that accidental shooting are handled far more casually than I'd realized.
Did you know that when John Wayne accidentially shot Ward Bond in a hunting accident, Ward Bond left the shotgun to Wayne in his will?
Actually a young man in my area was peppered with birdshot a few years ago and the local LE acted like it was no big deal, they did not seem to equate it with the more serious shooting incidents at all. Birdshot hitting a person is usually only very annoying and really painful, not a big deal.
The person I knew didn't think to report it to LE at all, his mother made him go to ER for treatment, they reported it. LE talked to him later by phone for their report since they were notified. BTW the ER in this case just cleaned the wounds real good and sent him right home.
I'd bet a lot of these type of incidents aren't even reported to LE or medically treated at all. I've heard of some non-reports myself.
This should only have been a major deal for the man who was hit and Cheney. The man that was hit, was hurt worse than normally happens, and of course it had to scare the tar out of him. Cheney admits it was his fault, so he feels guilty and terribly bad that he harmed a friend.
The rest of us would not even care if Cheney wasn't involved. When is the last time you saw a news article about someone shot with birdshot before this happened? This is for sure not the only time an incident like this has happened.
It takes a moment for everything to register...so did Cheney REALIZE "AT THE MOMENT" that he was the one who hit Whittington?
I'm afraid that if I was a Security dude, that I might have put Cheney on the ground and protect him until I knew absolutely what was going on.
In other words, till I knew that an "accident" had occurred and there were no other in coming shots and everything everywhere was checked out, the media and the cops can go to hell. That's the way it should be.
This was not a delicate situation, it was a devastating situation; an injured friend and the protection of the Vice President of the United States was involved.
Mr. Whittington understands exactly what Mr. Cheney has been through and when he said he withheld any statement out of respect for the Vice-President, it was because he recognizes that his friend IS the Vice-President of the Country they love and respect and his friendship has to be second. Whittington is a good soldier and so is Mr. Cheney.
With all due respect to both gentlemen, I hope that Mr. Whittington will recover nicely because I think he wants to hug his "old friend" and take away some of his pain.
So a drunk hunting party would not be a physical threat to the VP?
So the SS would let the Vice President of the United States get drunk, along with his party, grab guns, and go hunting?
I never heard about it at all, thanks.
/Sullivan......
Soon you will know that you have been banned from FR.
Depends on who is doing the covering.
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