Vermont Man Kills Himself After Fatally Shooting Friend in Deer Hunting Accident
A Vermont man took his own life Saturday after accidentally killing his friend in a deer hunting accident, police said.
Authorities said they believe 49-year-old Timothy Bolognani, of Readsboro, Vt., killed himself with a hunting rifle after accidentally shooting his friend, 39-year-old Benjamin Birch, while the two were hunting for deer Saturday morning, the Bennington Banner reported.
The two men were reportedly hunting in woods about a mile west of Howe Pond Road in Readsboro with another friend, identified as Mark Colford.
Police said that when they responded to the scene, they found Bolognani and Birch dead from gunshot wounds, according to the newspaper.
Investigators said Birch shot at a deer, which then ran through the woods. The three men tried to track the animal, police said, and at some point Bolognani fired his rifle.
Birch was heard crying out before Bolognani and Colford found him lying on the ground, where he later died, the newspaper reported.
Bolognani, the son of former state Rep. Betty Bolognani, then shot and killed himself with his own rifle, police said. No foul play is suspected.
"These guys were best friends and professional hunters," Birch’s mother, Jacqueline Clara Howe, told the Boston Herald.
The hunting deaths were the second tragedy to hit the Bolognani family in the past two years.
Bolognani's 18-year-old daughter, Jessica, reportedly died in a snowmobile accident in Jan. 2010.
The teenager was struck by an oncoming snowmobile after falling from her own, according to the Burlington Free Press.
That is sad. But just shows how easily accidents can happen. When handling firearms of any type they should always be treated as if they were loaded and the muzzle always pointed in a safe direction. The two basic fundamentals of gun handling.
__________________ PLEASE NOTE THAT DUE TO THE RISING COST IN AMMO PRICES I WILL NO LONGER BE FIRING A WARNING SHOT.
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I'm not as good as I'm gonna get - but I'm better than I used to be. "Life without God is like an unsharpened pencil - it has no point."
It does not say that in this article but, he fired at something without visually verifying the target.
I am really not suprised that is all you took from this article, accidents happen!! Reminds me of a story I read about a teen lowering a loaded weapon from his treestand and it fired, killing his friend. One of the comments was " he got what he deserved for hunting defenseless animals".
So do you also think that he took his life to avoid prosecution? I'd say he was devastated by his action and knowed he could not live with the fact he killed a life long friend.
There are two families devastated over this unfortunate accident, whether avoidable or not!
I Hunt ONLY with a Group of Friends that I have Hunted with for over 20 Years, We ALL Know where each and every one of us are at at ALL Times. We Communicate with Radios or Phone to know where we all are at all times. If someone decides to Move from there spot we know it. We Dont allow anyone else to Hunt with us because that's just the way it is. We Hunt in FULL Snow Camo during our Late ML Season and have No Worries. A Deer is a Deer and there is NO SUBSTITUTE, PERIOD!
That was No Accident, I have had Visual Parts of a Deer and Not Shot because I Did'nt see the Whole Deer and have Not Shot in a Deers Direction because I knew that one of My Hunting Buddys was in that direction. I Feel for the Guy and know how He must have felt.....
We Hunt near a Thruway, the BIG Bucks like to run the Thruway Fence, I've Passed on Many Big Bucks that were EASY shots, but because there were Cars in the distance I PASSED.
There's just No Excuse for what happened, there's Accidents but that was No Accident.
(BP)
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Those who hammer their Guns into plows will plow for those who do not. Thomas Jefferson
There's just No Excuse for what happened, there's Accidents but that was No Accident.
I have to agree Breechplug, sad as the case is. The only logical conclusion is the shooter was not able to clearly see or identify his target.
I saw a report years ago of an experiment where they briefly flashed pictures of deer and men on a screen. A surprisingly large number of participants identified a man as a deer at some point during the test. Even so, one should never shoot on the basis of a flash look at the target.
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Things I've Learned: (1) It's not possible to please everyone, but quite easy to piss everyone off. (2) If you love animals as I do, then you're not a vegetarian. (3) There's no need to act stupid, even if you're very good at it. (4) If you eat right and exercise, don't smoke or drink, you're going to die anyway.
This is a true sad incident. I am sure the guilt this man went through after killing his friend was just too much for him. And that's sad in itself. One can not stress the importance of hunter safety.
When I was teaching a young man to hunt, I pounded it into him over and over... know your target and what is behind it. Yet I too was guilty of the same thing, not knowing what was behind my target. While I did not kill a human, I did kill a second deer. And while my friends thought that was pretty cool, it has bothered me terribly for a long time.
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"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, a total wreck, screaming Yahoo, with a big smile on your face."
Terrible tragedy in Vermont
