Stray Shot at Hunt Reported to Have Hit Cheney in '90s

washingtonpost.com
Stray Shot at Hunt Reported to Have Hit Cheney in '90s
Associated Press

ALBUQUERQUE, April 10 -- Years before Vice President Cheney accidentally shot a lawyer during a Texas quail hunt, Cheney himself was on the receiving end of an errant shotgun blast.

Carlsbad Mayor Bob Forrest said he does not know for certain whether he or his twin brother, Dick, fired the shot during the hunting trip in the late 1990s. It accidentally pelted Cheney, who was then chief executive at Halliburton Co.

"We're probably the only twins in the United States that have shot the vice president and never have gone to jail," Forrest said jokingly. The Albuquerque Journal reported the incident Sunday.

Cheney was not hurt, but he was miffed, Forrest told the Journal.

"He said, 'You guys watch where you're shooting!' He was very offended," Forrest said.

The hunting group included the Forrest twins, Cheney and Sen. Pete V. Domenici (R-N.M.). They were hunting on a southern New Mexico ranch owned by the late Colin McMillan, an assistant secretary of defense under President George H.W. Bush, Forrest said. He said the senator was not the shooter.

A spokesman for Domenici confirmed that the senator hunts with the Forrest brothers and has hunted with Cheney. He declined to comment further.

A message left Monday with Cheney's office seeking comment was not immediately returned. The Journal said several phone calls to Cheney's office last week also were not returned.

During a Feb. 11 hunting trip in Texas, Cheney accidentally peppered lawyer Harry Whittington in the torso, neck and face with as many as 200 shotgun pellets. Whittington suffered a mild heart attack caused by a pellet lodged near his heart three days after the shooting. He has since been released from the hospital. Kenedy County Sheriff Ramon Salinas III ruled the shooting an accident.