Fatal shootings involving nonhunters rare in Va.

Posted to: Outdoors Sports Virginia

The Associated Press
© November 19, 2009

ROANOKE

Fatal hunting-related shootings in which a nonhunter is a victim are rare in Virginia.

Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries spokeswoman Julia Dixon says none of the 39 firearms-related fatalities recorded since 1998 involved a nonhunter.

A Ferrum man faces manslaughter and other charges after authorities say he fired at a group of Ferum Ccollege students he mistook for a deer on Tuesday. One student was killed and the other was wounded.

While hunting related-shootings involving nonhunters are rare, Capt. Bobby Mawyer with the department says a hunter mistaking a person for an animal isn't.

According to the department's figures, 17 of the fatal shootings since 1998 involved a hunter shooting at what he thought was an animal.

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