If somebody shoots me on the trails, they can say they thought I was a bear and get away with it?

Skagit County resident wrote:

And to whoever posted about the Snohomish County case, that was two years ago, not last year - and I highly doubt a teenager is spending his summers stalking & shooting at lady hikers on trails, especially while accompanied by an adult.

I did not say the two cases are connected and I wasn't trying to imply that. I posted that because the incidents were in the same forest.

ROCKPORT – One shot and lives were changed for ever.

A teenaged hunter on Sauk Mountain Saturday took aim at the figure about 120 yards away and pulled the trigger.

What the Concrete youth thought was a bear turned out to be a 54-year-old woman from Oso hiking with a friend, Skagit County Sheriff’s deputies said. The shot was fatal.

The woman was hiking on the mountain near Rockport with a friend, just five or 10 minutes from the trail head, when she was struck by a bullet, said Sgt. Bill Heinchk, of the state Department of Fish and Wildlife.

According to a Sheriff’s Office news release, the woman had stopped on the trail to put something in her backpack when the hunter took one deadly shot.

The hunter and the victim were about 120 yards away from each other in an alpine area with trees, meadows and brush on very steep terrain, Heinchk said. The juvenile had been hunting with at least one adult at the time of the incident.

Bear hunting season, the earliest hunting season of the year, opened Saturday. The season continues through the end of the year.

Heinchk said that the hunters in the party that included the Concrete youth in the Sauk Mountain shooting all had valid licenses.

State law requires anyone born after Jan. 1, 1972 to pass a Department of Fish and Wildlife hunter’s safety course to obtain hunting licenses, said Fish and Wildlife Capt. Bill Hebner.

There are typically about 20 hunting accidents every year in the area, Heinchk said, and one or two of those are fatal. This accident was unique.

In many hunting accidents, victims are shot by other hunters in their own party, especially during bird season, when they’re quickly whipping their guns around to shoot, Heinchk said.

“A lot of hunting accidents are the Vice President (Dick) Cheney type,” he said.

Other times, hunters’ guns go off when they’re not prepared.

Hunting accidents are rare during bear season, because the number of hunters is much lower than for deer or elk season. Bears are hunted for the sport, as well as meat, which Heinchk said, is comparable to pork.

“We haven’t had any (fatalities) here during bear season, that I can remember,” he said.

Neither the shooter or the victim’s name were released. No one was arrested.

The victim was a resident of Oso, a small community in Snohomish County just south of the line with Skagit County and halfway between Arlington and Darrington.

Due to the steep terrain of where the body fell, emergency search and rescue ground crew volunteers were called to assist in recovery. Those volunteers are trained to work in difficult terrain.

Detectives from the Skagit County Sheriff’s Office as well as an officer from the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife are investigating.

Heinchk encouraged all hunters and all recreational hunters to wear bright orange during any hunting season. Although, he acknowledged, that many people are not aware that bear hunting season is open.

John Koenig, a long-time hunting and fishing guide based in Rockport, said Saturday that hunters should avoid areas where trails are well-maintained since good trails attract the most hikers.

He said that when he guides hunting trips in the area of Sauk Mountain he takes his clients to the more rugged north side of the mountain, where hikers rarely venture.

The exact location of the hiker when she was shot wasn’t clear Saturday.

But Koenig said that no hunter should fire on a target unless it has been clearly and positively identified.

“You can’t just see a black spot and shoot,” he said.

His advice to hikers during hunting season is to stay on the most maintained trails and wear orange vests or jackets.

“You want to stick out like a sore thumb,” he said.

Fish and Wildlife’s Heinchk said he always tells his hunter’s safety class: “Once that gun goes off, there is no taking it back, everyone’s lives are changed forever.”

Let the boy and his adult friend be. Allow them to go out in the woods to continue hunting. Now, the family of the woman killed should be given guns, let them also go out in the woods and they just might "accidentaly" shoot a couple of "bears" themselves. They should declare open season on that little bastard killer and his adult friend.

Nobody said the kid should be coddled. I merely suggested that it was an accident, not that the kid set out to kill a hiker.

The "adult friend" may or may not have been a parent. For all we know, the juvenile hunter may have been a female. None of the articles have specified a gender.

I'm withholding judgment till more of the story comes out. I'm sure if I were that kid, I'd wish I'd shot myself instead.

Strike the second sentence; it was a boy.

I didn't mean it. I'm WHITE. I'm sorry. I'm WHITE. I thought she was a bear. Did I say I'm WHITE. Don't press charges. Sob sob sob sob...

grainger wrote:

"....I went and shot the limit that the game laws would allow;

two game wardens, seven hunters, and a cow."

left out the good parts...

I always will remember,

'Twas a year ago November,

I went out to hunt some deer

On a morning bright and clear.

I went and shot the maximum the game laws would allow:

Two game wardens, seven hunters, and a cow.

I was in no mood to trifle,

I took down my trusty rifle

And went out to stalk my prey.

What a haul I made that day!

I tied them to my fender, and I drove them home somehow:

Two game wardens, seven hunters, and a cow.

The law was very firm, it

Took away my permit,

The worst punishment I ever endured.

It turned out there was a reason,

Cows were out of season,

And one of the hunters wasn't insured.

People ask me how I do it,

And I say "There's nothin' to it,

You just stand there lookin' cute,

And when something moves, you shoot!"

And there's ten stuffed heads in my trophy room right now:

Two game wardens, seven hunters, and a pure-bred Guernsey cow.

I don't think someone could pop you on a trail and go unpunished by saying they thought you were wild game.

Obviously, they would have been just shooting at whatever moved and didn't even bother to get closer for a good look, so it would be entirely their fault.

I don't know about the state where that boy lives, but where I live you apply for a hunting licence to get a certain number of a certain kind of animal - if you kill something other than what your licence says then you've broken the law and you get a fine (or a prison sentence if it's a human).

The hunter is obligated to have a good look and be damn sure of what he's shooting at, so if he shoots something else it's on him, accident or not.

Thanks Keith. I see that I actually misquoted......I have all of Lehrer's songs on CDs, so there's no excuse.

Thanks Keith. I see that I actually misquoted......I have all of Lehrer's songs on CDs, so there's no excuse.

total bummer wrote:

How could you mistake a person for a bear? The kid must have fired within five seconds of seeing her. The kid and the dad shouldn't get away with this.

Have you seen some of the women in Skagit County?

Interesting article. My first thought was this kid was being supervised by Dick Cheney.

They should probably not allow hunting near these trails.

MarathonMind wrote:

Interesting article. My first thought was this kid was being supervised by Dick Cheney.

They should probably not allow hunting near these trails.

Funny, my first thought is that the kid was not being supervised. Hunting is has nothing to do with right, left, or Brian Pope.

I have hunted for 30 years and my father and I hunted deer with our backs leaning against the same tree while facing opposite directions for 4 years before I was allowed to hunt deer by myself.

We never hunted public lands and only hunted private lands that gave us permission. We would not hunt if there were others on it at the time.

drunk drivers kill people in accidents also

SCR wrote:

Nobody said the kid should be coddled. I merely suggested that it was an accident, not that the kid set out to kill a hiker.

The "adult friend" may or may not have been a parent. For all we know, the juvenile hunter may have been a female. None of the articles have specified a gender.

I'm withholding judgment till more of the story comes out. I'm sure if I were that kid, I'd wish I'd shot myself instead.

Skagit County resident wrote:

No, I don't know the party involved, but the posts calling for his imprisonment/execution are a little premature.

WRONG. The kid needs to be quartered and disemboweled for all to see.

whacked wrote:

The boy was absolutely wrong for not making absolutely sure at what he was shooting at. But I say again, she should have known that hunting season was open.

I run in trails, even during hunting season. It's generally safer than running on the roads around here. It is the hunter's responsibility not to fire at people, and I refuse to have to check whether some rednecks decided to name this week [insert random animal here] week, just so I can decide if I should go running. Similarly, if a car hit me on the street, it would be the driver's fault, not mine: getting into the car and driving it makes you responsible for what the car does.

In other words, I couldn't care less if it's pink unicorn season, I'm running in the trails if I feel like it. And if I get shot, too bad for the hunter.

Story is changing....news just said the kid (age 14) and his friend were dropped off by his grandfather. So much for adult supervision. The news also said there is no lower age limit for unsupervised hunting in this state.

The question that still hasn't been answered:

What the f*** do you do with a bear after you shoot it? What is the purpose of killing it? Winter coat?

from seattlepi.nwsource.com

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Last updated August 4, 2008 4:08 p.m. PT

14-yr-old hunter who shot woman was not with adult

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

MOUNT VERNON, Wash. -- A 14-year-old bear hunter who shot and killed a hiker was with his 16-year-old brother - not an adult as previously reported, the Skagit County sheriff's office says.

An investigation determined that the boys' grandfather dropped them off in the Sauk Mountain area near Rockport on Saturday morning but was not with them when the shooting occurred, Chief Deputy Will Reichardt said Monday.

The two teens, from Concrete, were on a ledge overlooking the trail when the hiker, 54-year-old Pamela Almli, stopped below to put something into her backpack, he said. The younger boy fired, thinking she was a bear.

Almli was from the Snohomish County community of Oso, which ironically means "bear" in Spanish. Almli was hiking with a friend.

"All I can say is that it never should have happened," Almli's husband, William, told the Skagit Valley Herald. They have a son and three grandchildren.

"How do you confuse a woman with a bear?" he asked.

Family members said Almli was an avid hiker.

"She lived to be out there," her sister, Gail Blacker, told KOMO-TV. "You couldn't keep her in. She'd go in the snow, rain - it didn't matter."

"She just had a heart of gold, she loved people, she loved animals, and she just wanted to help people," Blacker said.

Bear hunting season opened Saturday for the entire Sauk Mountain area, including trails popular with hikers. The season goes through the end of the year.

The hunter and the victim were about 120 yards away from each other, said Sgt. Bill Heinchk, of the state Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Heinchk said he always tells his hunter's safety class: "Once that gun goes off, there is no taking it back; everyone's lives are changed forever."

Skagit County prosecutors were meeting with sheriff's investigators to decide whether to file any charges in the case.