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Questions still surround accounts of Cheney shooting accident

The hunters' positions and their spacing are vague
MARK BABINECK, Houston Chronicle spacer Copyright 2012 Houston Chronicle. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
MARK BABINECK, Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle
Published 06:30 a.m., Sunday, February 19, 2006
Houston and Texas
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The South Texas sun hung low on the sprawling Armstrong Ranch when Vice President Dick Cheney's hunting party encountered two last coveys of quail.

The late-day find could have meant a winged bonanza for Cheney, prominent Austin lawyer Harry Whittington and Pamela Willeford, U.S. ambassador to Switzerland and Liechtenstein. Instead, the final shot from Cheney's 28-gauge Perazzi Brescia shotgun found Whittington, peppering his right torso, neck and face with up to 200 pellets.

"I'm the guy who pulled the trigger and shot my friend," Cheney said Wednesday on Fox News Channel, his only public account of the Feb. 11 shooting. "And I say that is something I'll never forget."

But despite a week of details trickling out from Cheney, Whittington, eyewitnesses and official reports of the incident, a clear picture of exactly what happened on the ranch's Comal Pasture has yet to emerge.

The White House also has been battered with questions about why Cheney waited until the next day to announce the shooting and then did so by having ranch owner Katharine Armstrong call the local newspaper.

Break for lunch

A group of about 10 people, well-connected enough to enjoy a weekend outing with the vice president, had traveled to the legendary 50,000-acre spread in Kenedy County the previous day. They formed two three-person hunting parties early Saturday and roamed the range before gathering under an old oak tree to eat barbecue for lunch.

Initially, Armstrong told multiple news organizations that she didn't see any alcohol consumed, or that there may have been some beer at lunch but she didn't see Cheney drink any.

Cheney said he had a beer at lunch but told Fox News that nobody consumed alcohol during the afternoon hunt. "Nobody was drinking, nobody was under the influence," he said.

U.S. government charts indicate a man of his approximate size would have burned off the alcohol from one beer before hunting resumed about 3 p.m.

According to an incident report by Chief Deputy Gilberto San Miguel Jr. of the Kenedy County Sheriff's Department, Whittington "explained first and foremost there was no alcohol during the hunt and everyone was wearing the proper hunting attire of blaze orange." Sheriff Ramon Salinas III has declined to discuss the report further.

After lunch, the party took a break, first returning to the ranch headquarters and then taking an hour-long tour of the ranch to look at game. They resumed hunting about 3 p.m.

The hunt continued when, before 5:30 p.m., a dog identified one covey and outrider Jerry Medellin found another in the brush about four miles west of U.S. Highway 77, according to witnesses. Outriders are people on horseback who look for quail in the brush.

Whittington drew a bead when the first covey flushed and "got a double," downing two birds, according to his hospital-room statement to San Miguel. Whittington peeled off to retrieve the birds while Cheney, with guide Bo Hubertand Willeford to his left, pressed toward the second covey about 100 yards ahead.

Another outrider, Oscar Medellin, was near the hunters, according to the sheriff's report. Armstrong and her sister, Sarita Hixon, stayed behind with the off-road motorcade, which also included Cheney's security entourage.

Based on witness statements, the hunters were facing roughly southward with the setting sun to their right. As the vice president and the ambassador stalked quail, witnesses say, Whittington started to return to the group.

"Neither the vice president nor I knew he had rejoined us. We thought he was way far back behind," Willeford said.

Then, a "bird flushed and went to my right, off to the west," Cheney said." I turned and shot at the bird, and at that second, saw Harry standing there. I didn't know he was there."

Whittington was standing in a low spot, Cheney said, explaining why the shot hit him so high.

Distance questioned

Those involved have not detailed exactly where they were positioned or how far apart they were spaced when Cheney squeezed the trigger. Ballistics, medical and hunting experts have said it's possible to sustain Whittington's level of injury, including one pellet lodged near or in his heart, from a range of 30 yards.

But to others, Whittington's wounds suggest he might have been closer.

"I was surprised (at the seriousness of injury), and I guess that kind of means we can all be surprised," said Dr. Paul Radelat, a longtime Houston pathologist.

Initially, witnesses said Whittington should have announced he was rejoining the group, although hunting experts countered that the shooter has the ultimate responsibility for what's on the other end of the muzzle. The Texas Parks & Wildlife Department classified it as an error in judgment by Cheney, who along with Whittington did not have the newly required $7 upland bird stamp on their hunting licenses.

An ambulance shadowing the vice president, a standard procedure, took Whittington from the desolate scrub to Christus Spohn Hospital Kleberg in nearby Kingsville. From there, a helicopter took the attorney to the better-equipped Christus Spohn Hospital Corpus Christi-Memorial.

At first, Whittington's wounds were said to be minor. Then a migrating pellet triggered a mild heart attack Tuesday. He left the hospital Friday in a dark suit, looking fit except for the right side of his face and neck, which remained pocked and bruised.

It's unclear whether Whittington found his kills.

Janet Elliott contributed to this report from Austin.

mark.babineck@chron.com

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