A hunter in Western New York is in hot water after firing his high-powered rifle at a pickup truck, saying he mistook the giant vehicle for a deer.
The incident happened in the small town of North Harmony, close to an hour south of Buffalo. Police said Marvin Miller of Middlefield, Ohio, shot the truck while hunting late on Friday morning. As the New York Daily News reported, the bullet struck the pickup truck’s engine, disabling the vehicle.
It was not clear how far the hunter was from the vehicle or how he could have mistaken a 3,000-pound automobile for a deer.
The incident happened just a few miles from another, much more tragic accident where a hunter shot and killed a woman earlier in the week after mistaking her for a deer. On Wednesday, 43-year-old Rosemary Billquist was taking her dogs for a walk in a field when a hunter mistook them for a deer, firing a shot in her direction.
The hunter, identified as Thomas B. Jadlowski, said he realized that it was not a deer after hearing the woman scream. He ran to help the woman and then called 911, staying with the badly wounded woman until first responders arrived, the Buffalo News reported. The woman was close to 200 yards away when she was shot, and the shooting took place just after sunset.
Billquist was airlifted to a hospital in Erie, Pennsylvania, where she later died.
Jadlowski is working with investigators and has not yet been charged with any crimes. The shooting is being investigated by the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation.
The shooting drew quite a bit of coverage from national and international news outlets, especially given the tragic and bizarre nature of the accident. It also sparked debate about whether the hunter should have been out so soon after sunset and whether it was wise for the woman to be walking dogs in a field during hunting season.
The shooting came days after a New York woman was shot to death by a hunter who had mistaken her for a deer https://t.co/qrXpbEdPKs
— NBC New York (@NBCNewYork) November 26, 2017
The hunter who shot a pickup truck after mistaking it for a deer was arrested on charges of reckless endangerment. It is not clear what happened to the truck.
