Two men were injured — one seriously — in separate Minnesota hunting-related shooting incidents Saturday, according to law enforcement.
Two injured in Minnesota hunting-related gunshot incidents Saturday
Authorities said the 34-year-old Dilworth man was in serious condition when transported to a Fargo hospital. A 37-year-old man sustained a nonlife-threatening gunshot injury in Norman County.
A deer hunter was shot in the head Saturday morning in rural Moorhead and taken by helicopter to a Fargo hospital for treatment, law enforcement officials said.
According to Clay County Sheriff Mark Empting, the 34-year-old Dilworth man was in serious condition while being transported to the hospital. His condition Saturday afternoon was unclear.
Saturday marked the first day in Minnesota’s 2024 firearm deer hunting season.
Empting, whose agency is investigating the Moorhead shooting, declined to release additional information on how the man was shot or who shot him. He said the area where the shooting occurred is a shotgun slug zone for deer hunting, so he assumes the man was hit by a shotgun.
Clay County deputies and a state trooper responded around 8 a.m. to a report that a hunter was struck by gunfire. Authorities provided first aid before an ambulance arrived and called Sanford AirMed for an air lift.
Also, a 37-year-old man was injured in a hunting accident in Lee Township, Minn., in Norman County on Saturday, according to the Norman County Sheriff’s Office.
Officers arrived around 10:45 a.m. to find the man with a nonlife-threatening single gunshot wound. He was transported to a Fargo hospital, according to a news release. The incident is under investigation.
Greta Kaul contributed to this story.
A report from the Minnesota State Patrol noted road conditions on I-35 were snowy and icy at the time of the crash.