Ep. 943: Did a 3-Year-Old Really Shoot Another Hunter?

Steven Rinella (0:04)

Welcome to the news show, everybody. This week, we've got details about a youth turkey hunt shooting in which a three-year-old shot another child. Coloradans will have a chance to assert their Americanness on November 3

Those of you who don't think you need help calculating your own ratios when grinding burger actually do need help. And we're here to provide that help. We got snow goose news out of Maryland and elsewhere. The Posh Mountain. What was that, Yanni?

Yanni (0:35)

I didn't say anything.

Phil (0:39)

I thought he said something.

Steven Rinella (0:40)

Dude, I was getting people hyped for the show. Now I'm like.

Yanni (0:44)

I literally just scratched my lip.

Steven Rinella (0:48)

Now we like lost the audience.

Yanni (0:51)

Bring him back. Bring him back.

Steven Rinella (0:52)

The Posh Mountain town of Bozangeles, Pilates capital of America, where we're sitting right now, just lost 14 black bears that the state had to euthanize because some dude was running a seemingly non-hunting bait pile. That titillates them and more.

But first off, let's dig into the youth turkey tragedy with the one and only Pat Durkin. Thanks for joining, Pat.

Pat Durkin (1:18)

Well, you bet. Thanks, Steve.

Steven Rinella (1:21)

Can you quickly remind, we talked about this. Can you quickly remind people at a very, like give a very quick overview of what happened last spring in terms of the initial news that came out, right? Just like the basics with the ages, because we commented on the story, but all we had was some basic numbers. So can you recap those numbers?

Pat Durkin (1:50)

Sure. This happened during the state's annual youth turkey season. It's a two-day season. It starts mid-April. It was done in Racine County, which is just south of Milwaukee.

Racine County also borders on Lake Michigan. So it's really the far southeastern county in Wisconsin.

It happened on a public land. It's about two square mile area. And it involved a deputy with the Racine County Shares Department. And the guy is 35 years old, and apparently he was mentoring, he said, his three-year-old daughter.

Steven Rinella (2:32)

Oh, I didn't know that it was a daughter.

Pat Durkin (2:34)

It was his daughter. And he was carrying a 12-gate shotgun and blind calling, just apparently walking around calling. He's never taken a hunter education course, but he's a military veteran. And in Wisconsin, we exempt veterans from needing to take hunter education.

He later told investigators they really had not hunted much before this incident. And he was usually hunting with his friends, but that day he was hunting by himself. Another interesting thing about this is...

Steven Rinella (3:13)

Well, Pat, could I butt in real quick? Do you mind just laying out... For people that haven't heard our coverage before, do you mind laying out the original story, just the cleanest, most bare bones version of the original story you can think of?

Pat Durkin (3:32)

Yeah.

Steven Rinella (3:33)

Which would be the day three-year-old during youth turkey season... I'll do it, then you can dive in.

Okay.

Spencer Neuharth (3:38)

Or you go ahead.

Steven Rinella (3:39)

Well, I'm asking for a second time.

Spencer Neuharth (3:41)

Go ahead, Pat, you do it.

Steven Rinella (3:42)

I see that anti-Pat Durkin sign behind him.

Pat Durkin (3:46)

I'm sorry, Steve. But yeah, basically, a man took his daughter out hunting. She was being mentored apparently.

He lined the shot up and then had her touch the trigger when he told her to shoot.

Inadvertently, he had mistaken movement 40 yards away for a turkey, and he ended up shooting a man who was there mentoring his seven-year-old son. It turns out this man was actually a co-worker, a fellow deputy in Racine County, the Sheriff's Department.

The shot hit these guys pretty hard. The man had his arm around his son, up like this, apparently around his shoulders. And so that got caught some of the shot, but the boy got the worst of it. He took multiple shots, pellets into the head, and upper neck and back area, and ended up in the hospital for a few days. And later, like in June, doctors removed every pellet they could from the boy. But he still had, to this day, has one pellet in his brain, one pellet in his skull, and one pellet in his spine. And the father, though, is doing well. He had 12 pellet wounds, and including some in his arm and left hand, but basically his left side of his body got hit.

Steven Rinella (5:12)

When this story was originally reported, for about, for many months, the only details that were out there was that a person mentoring a three-year-old child, that the three-year-old child had shot another pair of hunters. And then you've followed this story and have uncovered these other details. Where did you learn the, for instance?