Spokane7
59°Quick links: 2012 graduating seniors • Summer camp guide • Jobs: The Road Ahead • Prep sports • News quiz
Item: Shooter in hunting accident heads to jail Friday; Dalton Gardens man to begin 180-day sentence/Meghann M. Cuniff, SR
More Info: A North Idaho man who accidentally shot and killed another hunter in Shoshone County last year will report to jail Friday to begin a six-month sentence. James L. Egan, 64, of Dalton Gardens, mistook James R. Hinchliff, 57, of Deer Park, for an animal when he shot him in November near Thompson Pass Road. The families involved in the tragedy that shattered a longtime tradition between three hunters hope their story will become a catalyst for a movement to mandate hunter orange in Idaho, which neither hunter was wearing when the shooting occurred Nov. 18 near Murray.
Question: Do you voluntarily wear hunter orange while hunting? Why? Why not?
D.F. Oliveria is a columnist and blogger for The Spokesman-Review. Huckleberries Online was judged the best 2008 Idaho newspaper blog by the Idaho Press Club. And the best 2007 news blog in the Pacific Northwest by the Society for Professional Journalist. Print Huckleberries is a past winner of the Herb Caen Memorial Column contest by the National Association of Newspaper Columnists. The Readership Institute of Northwestern University cited this blog as a good example of online community journalism.
999 W. Riverside, Spokane, WA 99201
P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210
Main switchboard: (509) 459-5000 • (800) 338-8801
Newsroom: (509) 459-5400 • (800) 789-0029
Customer service: (800) 338-8801
© Copyright 2012, The Spokesman-Review
Terms of use • Privacy policy • Copyright policy
Find DFO on Facebook
DFO on Twitter
Stickman on March 11 at 8:04 p.m.
Why would anyone want to hunt, must be to kill something. Such fun is that, except when it just might be another human being.
northidahonative on March 12 at 4:57 p.m.
Egan is lucky he shot another hunter, if he had shot an elk out of season he could have really gotten into trouble. If you read the article he received no punishment for killing another hunter, he got 6 months for using a rifle during either black powder or bow season. If I was his attorney I’d appeal on the grounds that Egan never shot or shot at game so therefore the Fish and Game hunting regulations don’t apply, in fact you don’t even need a license to shoot another hunter.
Egan and every other hunter who shoots someone should be charged with at least 2nd degree murder. To shoot another hunter you have to take the safety off your rifle, raise it to your shoulder, aim, and pull the trigger, that makes the shooting intentional not accidental. Egan pulled the trigger on purpose, it was no accident. If you want to get away with murder in Idaho, just take your victim hunting and call the killing an accident.