Cops Release Cheney Witness Accounts
Statements differ on whether alcohol was consumed day of shooting
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Cops Release Cheney Witness Accounts
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Cops Release Cheney Witness Accounts -
Cops Release Cheney Witness Accounts -
Cops Release Cheney Witness Accounts -
Cops Release Cheney Witness Accounts -
Cops Release Cheney Witness Accounts -
Cops Release Cheney Witness Accounts -
Cops Release Cheney Witness Accounts -
Cops Release Cheney Witness Accounts -
Cops Release Cheney Witness Accounts -
Cops Release Cheney Witness Accounts
FEBRUARY 22--The Texas sheriff who investigated Vice President Dick Cheney's accidental shooting of a fellow quail hunter today released six witness statements gathered during a brief review of the February 11 incident. Kenedy County Sheriff Ramon Salinas initially declined to release the witness reports along with his office's final report on Cheney's shooting of Harry Whittington, a 78-year-old Austin lawyer, at the sprawling Armstrong Ranch. However, in response to open records requests filed by TSG and several other news organizations, Salinas's office this afternoon released the documents (but only after requiring us to send a representative to the sheriff's Sarita, Texas headquarters with a $2.70 money order). Each of the six witnesses interviewed provided similar accounts of the accident, recalling how Whittington was plugged when Cheney swung around and tried to shoot birds that had been chased from some brush. Unfortunately, Whittington's face had been in the line of fire. Those providing witness statements included ranch owners Katharine Armstrong and Sarita Armstrong Hixon, ranch employees Gerardo Medellin, Michael Hubert, and Oscar Medellin, and guest Pamela Willeford, the U.S. ambassador to Switzerland. Katharine Armstrong, who has given conflicting accounts of whether alcohol was consumed on the day of the hunt, wrote in her February 15 statement that, 'to the best of my knowledge there was no alcohol involved.' Willeford stated that 'there was no alcohol consumed during the afternoon of the hunt in the field,' though she did have a glass of wine with lunch several hours earlier. In a February 15 Fox News interview, Cheney said that he consumed a beer with his lunch. In a same-day supplement to her initial February 15 statement, Sarita Armstrong Hixon reported that, 'to my knowledge none of the members of the shooting group...consumed any alcoholic beverages.' Katharine Armstrong's statement can be found below and is followed by statements from Willeford, Sarita Armstrong Hixon, Oscar Medellin, Gerardo Medellin, and Hubert. (10 pages)
