Pocono News Section

Shot Hunter Touches Off Investigation

Shot Hunter Touches Off Investigation - Friday, December 4, 2009 at 5:42PM EST

Reported by: Mark Hiller
Friday, Dec 4, 2009 @ 05:42pm EST
NEWPORT TOWNSHIP, LUZERNE COUNTY - A shooting that left a hunter injured touched off a thorough investigation in the Glen Lyon section of Newport Township.

Police took a rifle into evidence after a hunter ended up shot in the leg. It happened Friday morning around 7 o'clock in state gamelands about 150-yards behind St. John The Baptist Slovak Cemetery. The victim was hunting with his wife when he suffered a rifle wound to the leg. That touched off an investigation that continued into the afternoon.

"We have a lot of evidence at the scene, you know. Blood, casings, all that kind of stuff," said PA Game Commission Officer Gerald Kapler. "Everything has to be documented, photographed, collected and marked for evidence."

Gathering that evidence meant bringing in heavy equipment to move mounds of dirt. A crew also delivered fill to make a drivable path into the muddy woods. This allowed investigators, including a state police forensics unit, better access to the shooting scene.

When Game Conservation officers arrived on scene, they found more than just a hunter shot. A bear was also wounded by rifle fire.

It's extended bear season in this part of Luzerne County and that's why the victim and his wife were in the woods first thing in the morning.

"They were up here bear hunting. Yeah, they had wounded the bear," said Ofc. Kapral.
"That animal is evidence now, too. We have to go examine that. We have to retrieve that, photograph it, do a necropsy on it now. See if there's any bullets in it from any of these hunters."

One of those hunters, a Hunlock Creek man, called 9-1-1 to report the shooting. He was too upset to appear on camera but stuck around to talk to investigators to tell them what he knew.

"Our investigation has to be completed to see if there was any negligence involved or anything like that, you know. Then that would determine if any charges would be filed," said Ofc. Kapral.