MI - Man dead after son shoots him in hunting accident

Man dead after son shoots him in hunting accident

Posted: Nov 18, 2007 07:14 PM
Updated: Nov 18, 2007 07:14 PM
By TONY TAGLIAVIA

HOME TOWNSHIP - A Montcalm County man died Sunday morning after his son shot him in a hunting accident Saturday night.

Michael Myers, 48, of Home Township, was shot after his son, 24, mistook him for a deer he was tracking, according to police.

It's fourth reported deer hunting accident in West Michigan just four days into firearm hunting season. That surpasses three deer hunting accidents in West Michigan for all of 2006, according to records from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.

None of the other incidents this year or last was fatal.

Family members say the shooting happened on property behind Myers' home on Vickeryville Road just east of Edmore. The call came into police just before 6:30 p.m.

Hunting schedules obtained by 24 Hour News 8 show hunting should have stopped in the county around 5:45 p.m. Since the son was tracking a deer he had already shot when he accidentally shot his father, it is possible the original shot occured within legal hunting hours.

But by 6:30 p.m., it was dark in Montcalm County.

"A lot of people do not wear adequate hunting orange when they're out in the woods," said Tim Irwin, the Home Township police chief who was the first emergency responder on the scene. "Even if they're not hunting, if they're out into a hunting area, they should be wearing hunter orange for safety reasons."

"Even on their own land," he added.

Myers was treated at the scene and eventually taken to Gratiot Community Hospital in Alma. He was ultimately taken to a hospital in Saginaw where he was pronounced dead after 3 a.m. An autopsy shows he died from internal bleeding.

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