Tis the season for getting out in the woods and doing your level best to bring home a buck. A freezer full of venison is a wonderful thing. All you need is a rifle or shotgun, a tag, and basic firearm and hunting safety knowledge. It seems, however, that South Carolina’s Kristopher McDonald was lacking at least some of those important prerequisites and it resulted in at least one death in a highly unlikely convergence of events.
The story as it’s being reported is that at about 8:15pm on Tuesday night, Lori Wind and her husband were walking their dog on property behind their home in Dorchester County. At the same time — long after sunset — McDonald, was deer hunting with a 20 gauge shotgun, heard them rustling through the woods, and opened fire.
From thestate.com . . .
McDonald heard leaves and branches rustling near the canal and fired three or four rounds from his 20-gauge shotgun, thinking he was shooting at a deer, he told deputies, according to the warrant. He struck Wind, killing her, while her husband was shot multiple times and hospitalized with life-threatening injuries, deputies said.
McDonald turned himself in after reports of the shooting appeared on local media. According to the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources . . .
Kristofer Kelle McDonald, 20, has been arrested and charged by the Dorchester County Sheriff’s Office with assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature and involuntary manslaughter. We have also charged McDonald with criminal negligent use of a firearm resulting in death, criminal negligent use of a firearm resulting in great bodily harm, and night hunting. This remains an active investigation.
The cynical among us might doubt the facts of the story as they’ve been reported. One very experienced hunter I talked to about the incident is highly suspicious. He thinks the idea that three people just happened to come onto each other in the woods, at night, while one opened fire in the general direction of the sound of rustling leaves, hitting both people, is more of a coincidence than can reasonably be believed.
We shall see. As the SCDNR noted, this remains an ongoing investigation.
“He thinks the idea that three people just happened to come onto each other in the woods, at night, while one opened fire in the general direction of the sound of rustling leaves, hitting both people, is more of a coincidence than can reasonably be believed.”
This will be one to watch… 🙁
He was hunting alone….there would not have been much evidence if he picked up his shot casings…he turned himself in.
Phone location data but if it was a smart hit that isn’t hard to leave home. Don’t know the location so is 8:15pm a legal time re hunting?
No…8:15 is well past sunset. The cut off for hunting is 30 minutes prior to sunset, which was 614 p.m. last Tuesday in South Carolina.
So unless nighttime hog hunting is a legal option there is a probability of poaching charges to consider along with potential aggravated upgrade charges (depending on state)
I don’t think he would have turned himself in if he was trying to kill people.
Generally true but weird people sometimes do weird things. This whole scenario seems weird and missing a bunch of detail. So see how it plays out after investigation and trial.
This reminds me of what happened in I think Maine. Back in the late 1970s. At that time the hunter and the woman he shot dead. Both were white. He walked. Never served any time.