Bullet grazes hunter
Copyright © 2002 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.
A 41-year-old deer hunter from Augusta escaped serious injury early Monday when a bullet allegedly fired by a teenage hunter grazed his hip and destroyed his hunting knife.
Staff photo by DAVID LEAMINGAugusta resident Keith Ellis, 41, shows the bandage that covers the wound he received while he was deer hunting Monday. click to enlarge
Keith Ellis of Church Hill Road was hit while hunting between Church Hill and Cross Hill roads, near Route 3, according to Mark Latti, spokesman for the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.
Ellis was hit in the right hip by a .243-caliber bullet reportedly fired by a 13-year-old boy who was hunting with his father, Latti said. The bullet deflected off Ellis' folding knife, which he was carrying in a leather sheath hanging from his belt.
Latti said the bullet grazed Ellis' hip, before striking and shattering the knife. Ellis said he is certain the knife prevented the high-energy bullet from entering his body.
The accidental shooting occurred about 7:45 a.m. while Ellis was hunting in a wood lot across from his home.
Latti said the 13-year-old who is believed to have fired the shot is one of Ellis' neighbors. The boy was hunting from a tree stand while his father was sitting on the ground at the base of the stand.
"(The father and son) said they were there only a few minutes when they heard a noise," Latti said. "The boy claims he saw a deer and the father asked if he was sure. The boy shot."
District Game Warden Kevin Anderson of Manchester and several other wardens were investigating the accident Monday.
"It's pretty crazy and kind of traumatic, especially after taking a bullet in the hip," Ellis said in a telephone interview from his home shortly after being released from an Augusta hospital.
"God saved my life. He was watching over me and the young boy who shot me. I'm still talking and walking. I owe it all to someone above."
Ellis said he was shot while walking down an old logging road toward the young hunter and his father. He said he did not know the boy and his father were only 30 yards off in a thicket.
Suddenly, something spun Ellis sideways and the hunter felt a burning sensation in his right hip, just inches from his groin.
"It actually felt like a bee sting at first, and then I heard a loud bang," Ellis said. "I looked down and saw a hole through five layers of clothing and my knife split in two."
At first, Ellis thought he had accidentally shot himself with his own rifle. He ejected a rifle cartridge to see if this were the case, but the shell had not been fired.
"That's when I realized I'd been shot," he said. "I didn't dare to move. I was scared to death. I let out a yell."
The boy's father yelled back and Ellis hollered he had been shot. The father and son drove the injured hunter to the hospital and contacted the Maine Warden Service to report the accident.
Ellis said the bullet ripped a deep inch-long gash in his hip, spinning him around and smashing the knife. He believes that when the bullet hit the knife, the bullet exploded and sent shrapnel through several layers of his clothing and into a nearby tree.
"The bullet not only went through my outer clothing, but through my long johns and my underwear," he said. "The investigating warden dug parts of the knife out of tree."
Calling the incident an accident, Ellis said he was not angry with the young hunter who is alleged to have shot him.
"I've known the family for years," he said. "They're good people. I know they feel terrible. We're both lucky."