Aug 04 2008
Woman Killed by Child Bear Hunter in WA
Skagit County Sheriff officials state that a 54 year-old woman who was hiking on Sauk Mountain in northwest Washington was shot and killed yesterday by a young bear hunter.
Apparently the woman and her friend had stopped to retrieve an item from her backpack when the boy, who was accompanied by an adult, mistook her for a bear and fired. The woman fell down steep terrain and rescuers had to retrieve her body.
Sauk Mountain hiking offers great views of the Skagit River Valley and Mount Rainier & Mount Baker. The well maintained is easy for hikers of all levels and takes about 2 ½ hours to walk.
According to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, hunting season for bears opened only one day earlier. All hunters in Washington state are required to complete a hunter education course before becoming licensed and the only age restriction is for children under the age of 12 who must then be accompanied by an adult in order to attend the course.
No arrests have been made at this time; names have not been released.
(Now here are my personal comments which I tried not to type but I feel the need. What the HECK is a child doing with a rifle? What is the NEED for him to hunt? Did he get caught up in the ‘EXCITEMENT’ of the hunt and just wanted to shoot something? WHY would they be hunting in a HIKING area? Hunting MAY be considered a ‘sport’ but do the parents know that they’ve screwed up their kid for LIFE?! This is NOT a video game, a woman actually DIED.)
It is a terrible thing that this woman died and the parents should’ve been paying attention to what the kid was aiming at but the real question is why is hunting allowed in a popular hiking zone? And where does it say the hunter was a child? I live in Seattle and the only news reports I’ve seen say he was a ‘jvenile’, not a child.
I’m going with the definition of a child being under the age of majority in any state