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BY TOM BRUNE AND TIMOTHY M. PHELPS
NEWSDAY WASHINGTON BUREAU
February 16, 2006, 9:13 PM EST
WASHINGTON -- There is something wrong with this picture.
In the only publicly available, official report on last weekend's accidental shooting by Vice President Dick Cheney, a diagram of a body shows where Austin lawyer Harry Whittington was hit by pellets fired from Cheney's Italian-made shotgun.
That diagram has been picked up and faithfully replicated by television and newspapers across the country, including the New York Times this week and by Newsday Thursday.
The only problem is that the diagram is wrong, by all accounts. It shows Whittington hit on the left side of his face, neck and chest when Cheney, the Kenedy County Sheriff's office and the report itself say the wounds were on the right side.
Texas Game Warden James Duke filled out the report on Monday, based on information from the sheriff's office, and he made a mistake, said Lydia Saldana, spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Parks and Wildlife. "That's a human error," Saldana said. "He should have colored the other side. It was the right side of the face and neck."
The diagram is a mirror image of a frontal representation of a body. Duke forgot to adjust and put marks for the shots on the body's right-hand side. Instead, he put them on his own right-hand side, Saldana acknowledged.
Duke was not alone in his mistake. In another diagram showing the body from the side, however, Duke got it right, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department's hunting accident report form shows.
"You want to try to record it accurately. That always helps if you pull it up again in the future," said Mark Birkhauser, president elect of the International Hunting Education Association.
Hmmmmmmmmm
NEWSDAY WASHINGTON BUREAU
February 16, 2006, 9:13 PM EST
WASHINGTON -- There is something wrong with this picture.
In the only publicly available, official report on last weekend's accidental shooting by Vice President Dick Cheney, a diagram of a body shows where Austin lawyer Harry Whittington was hit by pellets fired from Cheney's Italian-made shotgun.
That diagram has been picked up and faithfully replicated by television and newspapers across the country, including the New York Times this week and by Newsday Thursday.
The only problem is that the diagram is wrong, by all accounts. It shows Whittington hit on the left side of his face, neck and chest when Cheney, the Kenedy County Sheriff's office and the report itself say the wounds were on the right side.
Texas Game Warden James Duke filled out the report on Monday, based on information from the sheriff's office, and he made a mistake, said Lydia Saldana, spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Parks and Wildlife. "That's a human error," Saldana said. "He should have colored the other side. It was the right side of the face and neck."
The diagram is a mirror image of a frontal representation of a body. Duke forgot to adjust and put marks for the shots on the body's right-hand side. Instead, he put them on his own right-hand side, Saldana acknowledged.
Duke was not alone in his mistake. In another diagram showing the body from the side, however, Duke got it right, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department's hunting accident report form shows.
"You want to try to record it accurately. That always helps if you pull it up again in the future," said Mark Birkhauser, president elect of the International Hunting Education Association.
Hmmmmmmmmm
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