Number 9 Lukas Dudley
In 2020, a hunter was fatally shot, in northern Minnesota, after he was mistaken for a deer.
The incident took place at around 7 pm and, according to the Beltrami County Sheriff's Office,
28-year-old Lukas Dudley wasn’t wearing any high-visibility gear. Dudley was presumably
trying to keep a low profile. He’d been released from jail about a month prior and a court order
prevented him from possessing a weapon, meaning that he was hunting illegally. He was at the Red
Lake Reservation, where Rain Stately, aged 33, was staking out deer. The dusky conditions and
Dudley’s lack of brightly-colored clothing led to the tragic misidentification. Stately saw
movement in the foliage and fired one round from his rifle. Dudley collapsed and died on the spot.
Stately approached his target but, after realizing what he’d done, called 911.
It was reported that he fully cooperated with the authorities but it’s unclear whether or not
he was charged for the shooting. Number 8 Justin Lee Smith
In November of 2020, a North Carolina teenager got impaled on his own rifle in a brutal hunting
accident. 17-year-old Justin Lee Smith was hunting in the northwest part of Tishomingo County,
Mississippi. He was in a ladder stand, at a height of roughly 10 feet. Smith moved to one side of the
platform causing the balance to shift. He fell from the top and his chest got impaled on the
barrel of his rifle. Smith managed to call the emergency services on his cellphone but
succumbed to his injuries soon after. Number 7 Jayden Provost
In June of 2013, Jayden Provost set off on a hunting expedition in Australia’s Northern
Territory, armed with a crossbow he’d recently purchased. The 20-year-old heard some commotion
in a bush and ran towards it with the crossbow pointing down. Suddenly, he found it difficult
to move forward. When he looked down, Provost realized that he’d accidentally shot himself
through the foot, with the bolt’s tip protruding out the sole of his flip flop. He hopped back to
the homestead, where he was working at the time, hid the crossbow and tried to conceal the injury
from his employer. Provost remembered that he hadn’t spilled a drop of blood and, aside from
intense throbbing, didn’t feel much pain either. Understandably, it wasn’t long before his employer
noticed the arrow sticking out of his foot. He was taken to Katherine Hospital, on an hour and
a half drive. Upon arrival, doctors, nurses and paramedics all reportedly wanted to have their
picture taken with his unusual injury. The arrow was removed but, due to nerve damage,
Provost had trouble walking for a few weeks. Number 6 Micalla Alexis Rettinger
On April the 28th of 2019, a young woman from Waterloo, Iowa, was fatally shot while driving
her car through a wooded area, on Highway 218. 25-year-old Micalla Alexis Rettinger was behind
the wheel of a Jeep while her partner, Adam Kimball, was on the passenger side and another
adult was in the backseat. At around 2:30 am, a bullet shattered the driver’s window
and struck Rettinger through the neck. It then hit 32-year-old Kimball in the face, becoming lodged
in his tongue. The other passenger was unharmed. Rettinger’s succumbed to her gunshot wound while
Kimball survived. He was treated at a local hospital and was unable to speak for a few days.
The police determined that none of those present in the vehicle had been involved in any activities
to suggest they’d been the victims of a targeted attack. The leading theory was that they’d been
struck by a stray bullet from someone hunting in the area. An investigation was launched but as of
April, 2021, two years since the unexplained incident, the shooter hadn’t been found.
Number 5 James Pace
In August of 2013, Connecticut man James Pace accidentally shot himself in the shin
while hunting a raccoon. The 81-year-old, from New Haven, was determined to kill the animal, which
had been routinely scratching at his back door. Pace took his position in a chair, armed with
a .22 caliber rifle, and waited for the raccoon to wander back onto his property. At one point,
the elderly man sneezed which caused him to fall from his chair and accidentally fire the weapon
into his leg. Pace’s son took him to Yale-New Haven Hospital, where he was treated for a gunshot
wound that wasn’t deemed life-threatening. Number 4 Rosemary Billquist
A day before Thanksgiving, in 2017, a woman was killed, while walking her dog,
after a neighbor mistook her for a deer. 43-year-old Rosemary Billquist and her pet
were out on a field in the town of Sherman, New York. Her neighbor, Thomas Jadlowski,
was deer hunting well after sunset, which legally marked the closing of the hunting day. Jadlowski
remembered being about 200 yards from what he thought was one of the animals he’d been tracking.
He fired his pistol and struck Billquist in the hip, after which he heard her cry out.
Jadlwoski got close to the woman and called the authorities, upon realizing the grave confusion
that had occurred. Police reported that he was in an emotional state when they interviewed him.
Billquist was rushed to a local hospital where she was later pronounced dead. Her husband demanded
accountability and Jadlowski was initially charged with second-degree manslaughter, which
carried a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison. He eventually pled guilty to criminally negligent
homicide and was sentenced to one to three years. Number 3 Carl Rubisch
In 2013, Carl Rubisch and a friend were on a night time rabbit hunting trip near Brockton
in Shropshire, England. Just like his father, who was a member of the British Falconers Club,
30-year-old Rubisch was an avid hunter. Unfortunately, while on the Friday night trip,
he would suffer a fatal accident. As he was walking through a farm gate, Rubisch’s
weapon discharged and he was struck with a single round. His friend, who chose not to be identified,
ran to a nearby house and asked the owner to call an ambulance. Paramedics arrived at the scene but
they were unable to save him. Rubisch’s wife and mother to his two young children, whom he’d
married less than a year prior, was reported as “inconsolable” in the incident’s aftermath.
Today's topic was requested by Cadillac Deville, Justhen McSween, Metro Vanrss and Grosos Slendi.
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comments section below Number 2 Andrew Smith
On December the 2nd of 2020, Bradley Smith was hunting for white-tailed deer outside of Delaware,
Ohio, alongside his 28-year-old son, Andrew. They were with a group of experienced hunters,
friends who had been meeting up at the spot for over two decades. According to Ohio’s Department
of Natural Resources Division of Wildlife, hunters are legally required to wear bright orange,
half an hour before sunrise and after sunset. Daylight turned to dusk and Andrew wasn’t
equipped with the necessary clothing. As he was moving through the forest, he was shot
by his own father who thought he’d spotted a deer. Andrew was pronounced dead at the scene.
A spokeswoman for the Sheriff’s Office told the media “It's just the worst kind of tragedy”,
while the authorities said that Bradley wouldn’t be charged for the shooting.
Number 1 Chai Vang On November the 21st of 2004, Chai Vang
shot and killed six hunters following a dispute on a hunting trip, in northern Wisconsin. Vang,
a naturalized Hmong American, originally from Laos, was a veteran of the California National
Guard. That weekend, the 36-year-old had gone deer hunting, along with two friends and their sons,
at a popular spot east of Birchwood. It’s believed that they’d started their expedition on public
land before moving into an area owned by Terry Willers. He’d been hunting alongside a party
of 15, who were in a cabin on the private land. Willers found Vang in a deer stand and asked him
to leave. He then radioed the cabin, claiming he’d disposed of a “tree rat” and some of the
others got in their terrain vehicles. They caught up with Vang further down the trail, intending to
get the number of his hunting license and let him know that he wasn’t welcome. When they arrived,
Bob Crotteau, from Willers’ group, flipped over the tag on Vang’s back to get his license. A
verbal altercation ensued, in which racial slurs were reportedly uttered towards Vang. It then
turned explosively violent but the circumstances are disputed. Vang claimed that Willers had shot
at him first, from about 100 feet away, which triggered his defensive response. However,
no casing was recovered from Willers’ gun. By his own admission, Vang had removed the scope from his
rifle, before releasing his first shot, and then progressively gunning down the other hunters.
Willers, the only armed person in his group, was struck in the lower neck, as he dove for cover,
and was left paralyzed. Vang then aimed at the men on the ATVs, mowing down two of them. From close
range, he fired three rounds at 48-year-old Lauren Hessebeck, as he chased him around a UTV. He then
went in pursuit of Bob Crotteau and shot him dead, but not before he got the chance to radio
the cabin for help. By the time two other hunters arrived on an ATV, Vang had also killed Crotteau’s
20-year-old son. The killer turned his orange jacket to its camouflage side and waited to ambush
the others. Riding on the back of the arriving ATV was Willers’ 27-year-old daughter, Jessica.
Vang shot her in the back and the round pierced through her hip and into the driver’s lower spine.
Vang got near and executed both of them at close range. He then saw Hessebeck moving,
as he went to retrieve his scope. Vang approached him and reportedly said ““You not dead yet?”
Hessebeck grabbed Willers’ rifle, with shots flying past him. He fired it once but missed,
unable to properly aim it due to his wounds. Vang then fled the scene, after his weapon had run out
of bullets. Only Hessebeck and Willers survived his onslaught. Following his arrest, Vang tried to
claim self-defense, in court, even stating that some of his victims “deserved to die”. He was
sentenced to six life terms plus seventy years. Thanks for watching! Would you go on an
all-expense paid camping trip, to any location of your choosing, provided you
had to hunt and gather all the food you ate? Let us know in the comments section below!