November 4, 2012
By Steve Wagner, BemidjiPioneer.com
BEMIDJI – For the first time in three years, Don Bixby, 64,
packed up his hunting gear and took a lunch for the start of
Minnesota’s firearm deer hunting opener.
Within a few hours
of sunrise Saturday, Bixby’s hunt took a terrible turn.
At
9:01 a.m., the Beltrami County Sheriff’s Office received a call
reporting a man had been struck by a bullet from another hunter on
public land near Concordia Language Villages, about nine miles
northeast of Bemidji.
By the time deputies, ambulance
personnel and a state Department of Natural Resources conservation
officer arrived to the Turtle River Township location, Don Bixby had
died from the injuries.
Many of the details are not
available, but Nikki Bixby said the bullet traveled about 240 yards
before it struck her father, who was standing next to the pickup
when he was hit.
On Sunday afternoon, the Sheriff's office
identified the other hunter as 48-year-old Phillip Bruce Nyland of
the Bemidji area.
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