I dont know about u guys...try to picture this in ur mind. Funny
shet...i wonder how the victim can be so calm abt this. I guess
getting shot with a spray of bullets by the vice president is an
honour. haha..
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally
wounded a companion with shotgun pellets on a weekend quail hunt in
Texas, his office said on Sunday.
Cheney's companion, Austin lawyer Harry Whittington, 78, was listed
in stable condition after being brought in on Saturday night, said
Yvonne Wheeler, a spokeswoman for the Christus Spohn Hospital in
Corpus Christi, Texas.
Cheney's office said Whittington had been sprayed by birdshot while
hunting at the Armstrong Ranch in south Texas, about 200 miles
south of San Antonio.
The shooting was first reported by the Corpus Christi Caller-Times.
The vice president's office did not disclose the accident until the
day after it happened.
Katharine Armstrong, whose family owns the ranch, was a member of
the hunting party and witnessed the accident.
She said Cheney, an experienced hunter, did not realize Whittington
had rejoined the group without announcing himself, which is proper
protocol among hunters.
"They had no idea he was there," Armstrong said.
"A bird flew up, the vice president followed it through around to
his right and shot, and unfortunately, unbeknownst to anybody,
Harry was there and he got peppered pretty good with a spray of
28-gauge pellets," Armstrong said in a telephone interview.
"He was turning, facing the vice president, but turning to the
right, and it sprayed him across the right side of his face, his
shoulder, his chest and along the rib cage area," she said.
Armstrong said Cheney's medical team attended to Whittington before
he was taken to the hospital.
She described Cheney as "an excellent, conscientious shot."
"The person who is not doing the shooting at that moment in time is
just as responsible and, should be, as the person actually
shooting," Armstrong said.
Cheney spokeswoman Lea Anne McBride said the vice president had
been with Whittington at the hospital on Sunday.
"The vice president visited with Harry Whittington at the hospital
and was pleased to see he is doing fine and in good spirits,"
McBride said.
Cheney has been a frequent visitor to the Armstrong Ranch and in
October spoke at the funeral of family patriarch Tobin
Armstrong.
Armstrong's wife, Anne, served as U.S. ambassador to Britain and as
an adviser to presidents Nixon, Reagan and George Bush.
The 50,000-acre ranch was settled in 1882 by his grandfather, John
Armstrong III, a Texas Ranger known for capturing outlaw John
Wesley Hardin.
Whittington serves on the Texas state Funeral Services Commission
and the state Office of Patient Protection and is a former member
of the board of the Texas Department of Corrections