LUBBOCK, TX - Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot and wounded a companion during a weekend quail hunting trip in Texas, spraying the fellow hunter in the face and chest with shotgun pellets.
"I almost had another heart attack I was so surprised it wasn't a giant orange quail!" Cheney was heard saying aboard Air Force One later in the day.
Whitehouse spokesperson Johnathon Mckinley clarified the VP's statements, "Whenever Vice President Cheney goes hunting the Secret Service spray paint all of the game bright orange so they are easier to see and shoot."
According to Mckinley, Whittington - the man who was hit - shot a bird and went to look for it in the tall grass, while Cheney and another hunter walked to another spot and discovered a second covey.
Whittington “came up from behind the vice president and the other hunter and didn’t signal them or indicate to them or announce himself,” he said. "And apparently the sound of Whittington shooting his quail did not alert the VP and the other hunter to his presence."
“The vice president didn’t see him,” he continued. “The covey flushed and the vice president picked out a bird and was following it and shot. And by God, Harry was in the line of fire and got peppered pretty good.”
“It broke the skin,” he said of the shotgun pellets. “It knocked him silly. But he was fine. He was talking. His eyes were open. It didn’t get in his eyes or anything like that.”
“This is something that happens from time to time. You now, The VP has hit me a few times - I’ve been peppered pretty well myself,” Mckinley said. "It's all just in good fun."