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I guess this is all based on the assumption that Mr. Whittington will survive. This seems premature for the Kenedy County office to clear Cheney this early.
SARITA - The Kenedy County Sheriff's Department cleared Vice President Dick Cheney for accidentally shooting a fellow hunter last weekend in South Texas.
The investigation report, released to The Dallas Morning News Thursday, was based on interviews with several witnesses, including Mr. Cheney and Harry Whittington, the man he shot. No criminal charges will be filed.
Vice President Dick Cheney spoke about the accident for the first time yesterday. Mr. Cheney hit Mr. Whittington with birdshot on Saturday evening as they hunted at Armstrong Ranch, a 50,000-acre spread south of Sarita, the county seat. Pieces of the birdshot hit Mr. Whittington in the chest, face and neck. One piece migrated into his heart, causing a minor heart attack sometime Tuesday.
Mr. Cheney told Chief Deputy Gilbert San Miguel that he did not see Mr. Whittington, who was standing on lower ground about 30 yards west of him. Another witness, Katharine Armstrong, confirmed Mr. Cheney's story, the report says.
In an interview with Fox News, Mr. Cheney acknowledged drinking one beer with his lunch. He said the hunt began several hours later. The shooting occurred around 5:50 p.m., according to the U.S. Secret Service, which traveled with the vice president.
The report was issued three days after Kenedy County deputies said they were satisfied the shooting was an accident.
But deputies appeared to ramp up their investigation after media attention focused on the department's failure to interview any witnesses on the day of the shooting.
After interviewing Mr. Cheney on Sunday, deputies talked to Mr. Whittington on Monday.
"Mr. Whittington did speak of the incident and explained foremost there was no alcohol during the hunt and everyone was wearing the proper hunting attire of blaze orange," the report says.
On Tuesday, they interviewed other witnesses, including a ranch employee who told The News that he noticed no drinking.
"The only thing I saw that he [Mr. Cheney] had was water," said Gerardo Medellin, a hunting guide at the ranch.
Sheriff Ramon Salinas III has said he waited until Sunday to question anyone because ranch employees, who are his family friends, told him that it was an accident. He decided to let the hunters sleep off their anxiety and talk to them in the morning, he said.
In a supplemental report, the sheriff said a local constable working at the ranch told him it was an accident.
The Texas Department of Parks and Wildlife issued a hunting accident report on Monday that said alcohol and drugs played no role in the shooting.
Lydia Saldana, a spokeswoman for Parks and Wildlife, said her agency got that information from deputies. Jason Duke, the game warden, did not interview any witnesses himself.
"The sheriff's office or local law enforcement is always the lead agency when something like this happens," Ms. Saldana said. "In some cases we might be asked to assist, but that was not the case here."
The Sheriff's Department has no other records of the incident because no one called 911. A Secret Service agent in charge of the agency's McAllen office called Sheriff Salinas on his cellphone Saturday evening to report the shooting.
A private ambulance that travels with Mr. Cheney transported Mr. Whittington to a hospital in Kingsville. The Austin attorney was taken by helicopter from Kingsville to Christus Spohn Hospital Corpus Christi-Memorial on Saturday night.
Nueces County prosecutor Mark Skurka said the beer that Mr. Cheney consumed would not trigger any sort of criminal investigation. He does not believe that local prosecutors will get involved, he said.
"My understanding is he admitted drinking a beer at lunchtime," said Mr. Skurka, whose office's jurisdiction includes Kenedy County. "And the incident happened at 5:30. Any doctor will tell you a drink is absorbed within an hour."
The county would convene a grand jury if Mr. Whittington died, he said. But that would be a routine act in the case of a gun-related death, he said.