CA: Duck hunter shot in apparent accident, dies
News Now: Duck hunter shot in apparent accident, dies
By Rob Parsons/Staff writer
November 29, 2008 - 2:48PM
A Placer County man died Saturday after he was shot in the back in an
apparent hunting accident in southern Glenn County, investigators said.
Sam Whittaker, 44, of Lincoln was shot once in the upper back and
pronounced dead at 9:21 a.m., according to Glenn County sheriff’s Sgt.
Todd James.
“The investigation is pointing strictly to an accident at this
point,” James said.
The victim was hunting at the Upper Butte Basin Duck Club on Howard
Slough near Afton with his older brother Frank Whittaker, 55, of
Orangevale.
The older brother was walking behind the victim when he slipped and
fell, causing his .12 gauge shotgun to discharge into the victim, James
said.
Two off-duty registered nurses, also hunting in the area, heard the
older brother yelling for help and assisted.
Emergency responders waded through knee-deep marshes to find the
victim who had been hunting in a flooded ricecheck, James said.
He said both brothers were hunting legally.
This is the first hunting-related death in Glenn County this year,
James said.
He said he could not remember the last similar incident.
“We’re fortunate that this doesn’t happen often,” he said.
