Extracted from The Yazoo Herald (Yazoo City, MS)
Two Yazooans killed on season's first day
Vernon Sikes
On the first of the state's gun season, tragedy struck Yazoo County ... twice.
Scarcely five hours apart Saturday, two Yazooans died after having been shot. Law enforcement officials reported Monday that both were accidental.
Sylvester Young Sr., 81, of 1156 Willie Brown, was pronounced dead on the scene after he was gunned down at about 9 a.m. in a wooded area about one-half mile behind 328 Rusche Road.
According to Yazoo County Coroner Ricky Shivers, Young died after having been shot once in the neck with a 30.06 firearm.
Young was pronounced dead on the scene by Emergystat paramedics. Also responding was the Benton Volunteer Fire Department.
At 1:53 p.m. Saturday, emergency personnel were notified that another hunter had been shot. In that incident, Travis Arnold Powell, 61, of 2100 Dark Corner Road, was shot once in the back by s 12-gauge shotgun. He was transported to King's Daughters Hospital where he was pronounced dead on the scene.
Major Stephen Adcock, hunter education administrator with the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks (MDWFP), said both incidents involved hunters tracking wounded game.
``Both (deaths) are going to be mistaken for game incidents,'' Adcock said Monday. ``(The shooters) thought they were shooting at game and they weren't.''
Regarding the incident involving Young's death, Adcock said their preliminary investigation indicated he was tracking a deer.
``He had gone through a creek and had come out in a thicket on another property line when he was shot in the neck,'' he explained.
While it's certain Young was wearing hunter's orange, Adcock said it was not clear whether Powell was at the time ``but I don't believe'' he was wearing hunter's orange.
According to state law, all deer hunters must wear 500 square inches of unbroken daylight fluorescent hunter's orange.
``That means you can't take it off when you get in a tree stand or anything else,'' he said. ``That in no way relieves or takes away any responsibility from the person pulling that trigger. You must make absolute, positive sure of your target before you pull the trigger.''
Adcock explained that the MDWFP will continue their investigation and will ``almost always send that to the grand jury. If they deem that there is
something there that they need to go forward with they will, but we don't make an arrest....''
Adcock said that in spite of the deaths, hunting is a ``very safe sport. It's very unfortunate what happened and it's luck of the draw that you have two incidents like that within five hours of each other in the same county.''
There were only two hunting-relating fatalities in the entire state last year. The year before, there were five hunting-related deaths.
``It varies,'' Adcock said. ``One year, I think we had 11 fatalities. Last year, we had a record low number of incidents. The majority of these are avoidable.''
To emphasize that hunting is a safe sport, Adcock said, ``When you get 300,000 people in one activity, you're going to have something happen. If you took 300,000 people and put them in a football stadium, something is going to happen to some of them. The national average (for hunting) is about one injury per 14,000 participants, which is very low. That puts hunting (incidents) below badminton. In high school football, there's around one injury per 3,500 participants.''
But he added that hunting in a recreation and when something happens, it's usually a tragedy.
``It's just very unfortunate that this happened Saturday and, hopefully, we won't have anything else like this happen this year or next year,'' Adcock said. ``The only way to prevent them is for people to make absolute, positive sure of their target before they pull the trigger. And never ever point a firearm, loaded or unloaded, at anything you don't want to put a hole in.''
Contacted Monday morning, the Yazoo County Sheriff's Department deferred all questions to the MDWFP. The names of the individuals who shot the victims have not been released.
Stricklin-King Funeral Home is handling the Powell funeral. Gregory Funeral Home is in charge of the Young funeral.
Wednesday, November 26, 2003
Managing Editor