Hunting tragedy touches others

Posted By TRACY MCLAUGHLIN

Posted 2 months ago

One day after a local hunter was found not guilty of manslaughter after he shot and killed a woman who was out walking in the forest, the hunting community is still reeling from the tragedy.

Hunter Fred Thomas, 62, was relieved with the fact that a judge found him not criminally responsible, but he lives with the undeniable fact that it was his shot that killed Marianne Schmid, 67.

"It's a hunter's worst nightmare," he said on the witness stand.

It was an unusually warm, sunny day on the first day of hunting Nov. 6, 2006, when Schmid decided to go for a walk on the Patterson Tract of the Simcoe County Forest, located about five kilometres from her home in Adjala Tosorontio Township.

She was shot in the abdomen by one of the lead buckshot pellets fired from Thomas' shotgun.

"This is a horrible tragedy," said David Critchlow, provincial law enforcement specialist with the Ministry of Natural Resources, who attended part of the trial and was there for the verdict that was made Thursday.

"This type of incident is so rare that it's the kind of thing that gets big headlines in the media," he said.

Critchlow said statistics in Ontario show a total of nine fatal hunting related shooting incidents in the last 10 years. Only two of those victims were members of the general public and the others were hunters.

"Hunter safety is something that is widely practised across the country," Critchlow said.

There are more than 400,000 licensed hunters in Ontario. Each gun hunter must pass both the Canadian Firearms Safety Course exam and the Ontario Hunter Education Course exam. In Canada, hunters spend more than $70 million per year in hunting licences and fees, which goes back into wildlife conservation and management.

Critchlow said most hunters are highly educated about their sport and it's an extremely rare situation where a hunter doesn't follow the basic "cardinal rules" of hunting. Those include never point a firearm at something unless you are ready to shoot; and be sure of your target and what's beyond and beside it.

"You need to be absolutely certain of your target," Critchlow said. "And you want to see the whole target; if I'm shooting at a deer, I want to see all of it."

At his trial, Thomas testified he did see his target. He testified he sat on a ridge that overlooked a main recreational trail about 45 yards away. He said he spotted a buck about 10 yards beyond the trail, coming down a hill. Suddenly it stopped and turned broadside and he had a full view, he said, when he fired his pump action 12-gauge shotgun. Within a second or so, he pumped and fired a second shot as the startled deer retreated into the woods.

The Crown suggested that Thomas did not see a deer, but instead shot at Schmid when he saw her white/beige blouse, thinking she was a deer -- a careless act that breaks the "cardinal rules" of safe hunting. Conservation officers did not find any sign of a deer that Thomas might have shot, but court heard neither did they go looking for a blood trail.

The judge said he believed Thomas was shooting at a deer, and found that it must have been a stray pellet that hit Schmid. There was no hard evidence heard in court that proved where Thomas was standing when he fired the shots.

Stray pellets, also known as "fliers" that stray off at a greater angle than the other pellets are extremely rare, said Critchlow, but if it happens, its something that should happen during practice shooting -before a hunter heads out. "A hunter should know his firearm," he said. "If you have a flier, get to a gunsmith."

A spokesperson for the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters, (O. F. A. H), agrees.

"It's a hunter's responsibility to know their firearm and to get out there practising," said Lezlie Goodwin.

While she says hunting accidents are extremely rare, "we would still like to reduce that to zero."

Still, Goodwin insists hunting is one of the safest recreational activities there is.

"In no way do we want to diminish the tragedy of this incident -- we are all deeply saddened by this," she said.