Delaware Charges Hunter, 74, in Fatal Deer Mistake Shooting, Sets $43,000 Bond

Q: What crucial safety rule did a hunter ignore before a fatal twilight mistake cost a mother of five her life?

He appears to have ignored the most basic firearms rule in hunting: never shoot until you have positively identified your target — and what is beyond it. That principle is central to hunter-safety training and is especially critical at dusk, when visibility drops and movement can be misread. Investigators said Walter W. Moorhead fired from a ground blind at what he believed was a deer, but it was Santos Maria Chilel Soto, who was walking across the field with three other people. The fact that he later approached with a flashlight, apparently looking for a deer, underscores that he fired without confirming exactly what he was shooting at. The timing also matters. Delaware hunting hours generally end a half-hour after sunset, and sunset in Ellendale that day was about 7:06 p.m. The shot was reported around 7:40 p.m., outside legal hunting hours. Those limits exist in part to reduce the risk of exactly this kind of misidentification in low light. Safety guidance cited in hunter education is clear: know your target, identify it positively, and know what lies beyond it before pulling the trigger. In practical terms, that means never firing at movement, shape, or sound alone. Authorities say that breakdown turned a twilight hunting trip into a fatal shooting that killed a 39-year-old mother of five.

3 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Sep 21

Walter W. Moorhead, 74, was charged with manslaughter after police said he fatally shot Santos Maria Chilel Soto, 39, while mistaking her for a deer in Ellendale, Delaware.
Police said Moorhead fired from a ground blind around 7:40 p.m. Friday as Soto crossed an open field with three others, then approached with a flashlight looking for the deer he believed he had hit.
Investigators said the shot came more than 30 minutes after sunset; Delaware's crop-damage deer permits allow hunting only until a half-hour after sunset, about 7:06 p.m. that day.
Moorhead also faces three reckless-endangering counts and a firearm felony charge, and was released on a $43,000 cash bond.
Soto, a Georgetown resident and mother of five from Guatemala, was memorialized by a local church as donations were raised to return her body to Guatemala.