December 10, 2006
By Jennie Jones Giles - Times-News Staff Writer
jennie.giles@hendersonvillenews.com
GREEN CREEK -- A Henderson County man is in critical condition
from a gunshot wound in a hunting accident Saturday and his friend
is in the Polk County Jail charged with the shooting.
Jesus Guerrero, 44, of Bolton Court in Dana underwent surgery
about 5 p.m. Saturday and was in critical condition at Spartanburg
Regional Medical Center, said N.C. Wildlife Enforcement Officer Toby
Jenkins.
Ignacio Chagollo, 39, of Bolton Court in Dana was charged with
criminal negligent hunting and reckless discharge of a firearm.
As of Saturday night, he was being held in the Polk County Jail
under a $75,000 bond.
Four men, all family and friends, were hunting deer Saturday on
private property off Gilbert Road in the Green Creek community of
Polk County.
"One guy mistook his friend for a deer," Jenkins said.
Chagollo was hunting with a 7-mm Magnum, a high-powered rifle,
when Guerrero was shot in the left arm between the elbow and
shoulder, Jenkins said. The bullet tore through Guerrero's abdomen,
rib cage and lungs, Jenkins said. The victim suffered extensive
blood loss by the time rescuers arrived.
Guerrero was not wearing blaze orange as required by law, he
said.
There were thick brush and briars on the wooded property above an
apple orchard.
"It was an old cut-over pine thicket about 1/2 to 3/4 mile off
the closest state-maintained road," Jenkins said.
Rescuers with the Polk County Rescue Squard and Green Creek Fire
and Rescue used an all-terrain vehicle with a basket attached to
remove the victim from the scene of the shooting.
"The Polk County Rescue Squad just bought the equipment," Jenkins
said.
A medical helicopter from Spartanburg Regional Medical Center
took the injured man from a nearby staging area to the hospital in
Spartanburg, S.C.
