Will Cheyney be tried for attempted murder or assault with a deadly weapon?
If Whittington dies, manslaughter at least.
This eyewitness is lieing through her teeth.
Anyone believe she wasn't told exactly what to say and when to say it? Hence the delay.
Why and who the hell is Cheyney to decide and to consult with the witness in determining how the public is to be notified?
Isn't that coaching? Did he pay her?
Once again, the administration thinks they are above the law.
Odd that she would even be accompanying Cheyney during this trip. Let alone an eyewitness to the incident and not insist on doing what most people would do, and call the police etc.
White House under fire in Cheney shooting accident
By Patricia Wilson1 hour, 31 minutes ago
President George W. Bush knew hours after Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot a fellow quail hunter but the White House came under fire on Monday for not making the information public until the next day.
The victim, Harry Whittington, 78, took pellets in his cheek, neck and chest when Cheney fired his shotgun while aiming for a bird during a hunt in southern Texas on Saturday, and was in stable condition at a Corpus Christi hospital.
Whittington was in intensive care as a precautionary measure because he was "peppered by shotgun spray," said Peter Banko, administrator of Christus Spohn Hospital. His condition is "not critical, not serious. It's just stable at this time."
The accident happened around 5:30 p.m. on a private ranch about 200 miles south of San Antonio, where the vice president has hunted previously. Whittington was treated on the scene by Cheney's traveling medical detail before being taken by helicopter to the hospital.
The accident was not reported publicly by the vice president's office until Sunday afternoon and then only after an account provided by the ranch's owner appeared on the Web site of the Corpus Christi Caller-Times -- the local newspaper.
In a testy exchange with reporters on Monday, White House spokesman Scott McClellan was bombarded with questions about the propriety of a private citizen making public a shooting incident involving the vice president and whether Cheney had followed White House protocol.
McClellan said Bush and senior aides were first told by staff in the Situation Room that there had been an accident in Cheney's hunting party and that the president learned later on Saturday night that the vice president had been the shooter.
"I think he was informed in a relatively reasonable time," he said at the news briefing.
A LONG STORY
McClellan said the vice president's staff did not tell reporters about the accident on Saturday because they were concerned about getting Whittington medical attention and were still gathering facts.
>b>Cheney and the owner of the property, Katharine Armstrong, then agreed that she should provide the information to the public about an accident that happened on her ranch.
"The vice president spoke with Mrs. Katharine Armstrong, and they agreed that she should make that information public. She was an eyewitness. She saw what occurred and she called her local paper to provide those facts," McClellan said.
Armstrong said it wasn't until Sunday that she telephoned the Caller-Times. She did not notify the national media or the White House press corps.
McClellan declined to say if he was satisfied with the way it was handled.
"You can always look back at these issues and look at how to do a better job," he said.
McClellan said he found out that Cheney was involved at 6 a.m. on Sunday and urged that information be made available as quickly as possible.
According to Armstrong's account, she saw the incident from a car while Cheney, Whittington and another hunter got out of the vehicle to shoot at a covey of quail. As Whittington went to retrieve a bird he had shot, Cheney and the unidentified hunter spotted a second covey.
Whittington came up behind and failed to signal that he was there or announce himself, which is proper protocol for hunters. Cheney, an experienced hunter, fired his shotgun without realizing that Whittington had approached the group. |
