Can Someone Reconstruct the Incident for Me?

[nashuaadvocate]

I just read what Katherine Armstrong told Fox News, and I'm trying to figure out who was standing where--and how everyone came to be where they were--in this Cheney shooting situation.

At the base of this post is what Armstrong told Fox News.

My question is, can someone construct an exculpatory (tending toward innocence) scenario in which a) Armstrong was close enough to hear and see what happened, and b) Cheney would have had no reason to see Whittington walking towards him? I'm baffled. Maybe someone could diagram this somehow, but right now this story is sounding like BS. I mean, the sun was directly behind Whittington, and it was mid-day? The car never moved, Cheney walked 200 yards away, and Armstrong was still able to see (and more importantly, hear) everything? Whittington walked somewhere between 1.7 and 2.3 football fields toward Cheney, in broad daylight, wearing bright orange, and Cheney didn't see him? This is insane.

From Fox News:

" Armstrong, who remained in the car, said Whittington shot a bird and went to look for it in the tall grass, while Cheney and a third hunter walked to another spot and found a second covey.

Armstrong told FOX News that Cheney, thinking he was the last hunter on the right of the party, turned and fired at a quail. Whittington was standing on lower ground with the sun to his back. He was knocked to the ground, but not knocked out. All members of the hunting party were wearing blaze orange, she said.

'Mr. Whittington decided to join them. He came up from behind the other two hunters, and unfortunately, he did not announce to the hunters he was there and trying to join the line,' Armstrong said. "The vice president and other hunter believed that Whittington was 200 yards away, when, in fact, he was 30 yards and behind the line."

[niyad]

1. this story doesn't make any sense to anyone with two arcing brain cells

[TX-RAT]

3. What part doesn't make sense?

I've quail hunted most my life and guided for customers and friends, for about the last 20 years. Maybe i can help.

[tsuki]

4. First I heard that he was in the line of sight, then I heard he was

behind the VP. Can you shoot behind yourself? I thought at these farms, you shot ahead of yourself.

[nashuaadvocate]

5. FireDogLake is great, they point toward an awesome article...

...in The Statesman.

See here.

And compare this version of Armstrong's story to the other one.

S.

[TX-RAT]

6. Quail come up in all directions.

If the bird comes up behind you there should be no problem taking that shot as long as everybody's still in line. It's when the line breaks down ( as in this case, stopping to retrieve a downed bird, and the line kept going ) and somebody's coming up from behind. I'm familiar with that country, it's not an open field, or a farm, it's 50000 acres of thick brush and mesquites. I've hunted in that area many times. When we knock down a bird, either the line stops and waits, or the other hunters come and help look for the bird.

[tsuki]

7. Does Texas require gun safety courses?

[TX-RAT]

8. Only if you were born after 72 i believe.

[niyad]

10. no, I don't think you can--I have been reading all day, and talking to

friends who hunt, and they all say the same thing-the story makes not one lick of sense.

HOW IN THE HELL could cheney mistake a fairly large man, wearing blaze orange, for a quail?
WHY wasn't it reported immediately?
WHY was it so carefully omitted that the US ambassador to Switzerland was the fourth member of the party (2 men, 2 women, no spouses)?
WHY is the man still in the hospital if the injuries were not serious, and in ICU (I could see him being in the hospital, in a private room, in an "excess of caution", but ICU--nahhhhh)


I could write a better story than this one, more coherent and logical, if I had three glasses of wine (at which point I would be asleep, by the way) they REALLLLLLY need a new scriptwriter.

[reality based]

2. Best coverage is at Firedoglake

http://firedoglake.blogspot.com/

[malaise]

11. So he didn't know he didn't have a licence

is this the first time he went to Texas to hunt? He's now sending the seven dollars for the stamp.

This is bullshit. No ordinary citizen could shoot a man and get a retroactive permit.

[elfin]

9. Cheney and big donor Whittington and TWO WOMEN

to whom they are NOT married locked and loaded for some shootin' fun after a few drinks too many.

Armstrong (Whittington's "date") was so plastered she passed out in the car while the others staggered about looking for some chicks to shoot.

Whittington paused to barf and Cheney handed his cane to his date, (can't remember her name) and zeroed in on some large locusts just after Whittington came up from his crouch about 20-30 FEET away from Dead Eye. BLAM.

After the "accident", they woke up Armstrong and told her the story she was to tell a friend at an itty bitty newspaper. It took all night and 3 pots of coffee to get her to remember what "really" happened.

They went to the hospital and all swore super secret double secret to stick to their guns.

That is what really happened. No story here - Move along.