Pubdate: Tue, 10 Oct 2000
Source: Sacramento Bee (CA)
Copyright: 2000 The Sacramento Bee
Contact:  P.O.Box 15779, Sacramento CA 95852
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Author: Sam Stanton

HUNTERS' SHOOTING BAFFLES OFFICIALS - BOY, FATHER MAY HAVE STUMBLED ON POT 
PATCH

It was supposed to be a family outing, a deer hunt in the rugged forests of 
El Dorado County where Bill Hunt and his relatives have owned property for 
years.

By the time it ended Sunday, Hunt was in serious condition and his 
8-year-old son in critical condition from gunshot wounds, and authorities 
were trying to determine whether the pair had stumbled across a marijuana 
garden being grown secretly on their land.

El Dorado County sheriff's officials announced Monday that they had found 
recently harvested marijuana plots on the property and were searching for 
two mysterious men who were in the area at the time of the shootings.

However, officials cautioned that they still were not certain whether the 
shootings were drug-related.

"Some of the facts don't make sense," said El Dorado County Undersheriff 
Jeff Neves.

In fact, investigators still did not know Monday exactly where the 
shootings took place or what kinds of weapons might have been used.

Interviews with authorities and family friends indicated that the incident 
began Sunday morning several miles from Georgetown, where Bill Hunt, 42, 
was on an outing with his 8-year-old and 4-year-old sons and his brother, 
Donald, 34.

"They've hunted for generations," said Christopher Hipkin, a friend of the 
Hunt family and a forest consultant for them. "This was like a 
father-and-son bonding thing where you take your boys out and teach them 
gun safety and wilderness skills."

The shootings occurred around 10 a.m. Sunday after the party set off in 
search of deer on the Hunts' 470-acre property near the Blodgett 
Experimental Forest.

Bill Hunt, a dairyman from the south Sacramento County community of Herald, 
was carrying a .307-caliber hunting rifle and was with his boys walking in 
the forest when they came across two men who were carrying a shotgun, 
according to an account the 4-year-old gave authorities. Neither boy's name 
was released.

The 4-year-old told investigators that the two men led him to a bushy area 
and told him to stay there to be safe from attack by bears or mountain lions.

They walked away, and the boy heard two gunshots. The boy then saw his 
father and brother returning, both with gunshot wounds, and the two men 
helping the pair. The two men led them to the family truck and helped them 
inside.

Meanwhile, Donald Hunt, who was hunting in a separate area, heard Bill 
Hunt's truck horn blaring.

Donald Hunt raced back to find Bill Hunt and his 8-year-old son suffering 
from gunshot wounds. The elder Hunt had been shot in the abdomen, his son 
in the face.

The wounded pair and the 4-year-old were in the truck, with Bill Hunt 
leaning on the horn to signal for help. Outside the vehicle, two 
unidentified men were trying to unhitch a trailer the Hunts used to haul 
their all-terrain vehicles.

Authorities believe the men were trying to remove the trailer to help the 
Hunts drive faster, but the men vanished after that, and officials have no 
idea who they are or whether they are connected to the shootings.

Donald Hunt was driving the truck, using his cellular phone to summon help, 
when they came across a Georgetown Fire Department truck returning from a 
false alarm.

"If they hadn't been there, Donald would have had to drive all the way to 
Georgetown for help," Hipkin said.

Instead, emergency technicians with the fire crew were able to administer 
oxygen and call for helicopter transport. Bill Hunt was taken to Sutter 
Roseville Medical Center in critical condition and was upgraded to serious 
condition Monday.

His son was taken to the UC Davis Medical Center, where he was in critical 
condition late Monday.

Family members at the hospitals declined to be interviewed, but friends 
said the Hunts are a friendly and generous family who treasured time spent 
with their children. Bill Hunt is a volunteer firefighter, and his wife 
volunteers in an area school library.

"They're wonderful people, always helping others," neighbor Shirley 
Grannell said as she choked back tears.

Investigators had little to go on Monday to explain the shootings, but they 
believe there is a possibility the hunting party unwittingly came upon a 
guarded marijuana plot.

The steep, rugged terrain of heavy forests is largely uninhabited, with 
much of it belonging to a large family trust and the University of 
California's Blodgett tract.

Authorities are trying to determine whether the two men who helped the 
wounded Hunts into their truck were marijuana guards who shot the pair and 
then decided to help them.

Sheriff's officials said that they found 50 to 75 marijuana plants in a 
small plot Sunday night, and that they discovered additional plants Monday 
that had been harvested in the past couple of days.

However, they were unable to pinpoint the site of the shootings or 
determine how far from the marijuana fields the attack may have taken 
place. They also could not say whether the pair had been wounded by someone 
firing at them or from a booby trap set to protect the marijuana.

Shootings in marijuana gardens are rare, officials say, and the use of 
booby traps has declined from the early to mid-1980s, when they were common.

The only shooting in recent memory involving a marijuana field was several 
weeks ago, when state authorities joined with Madera County officials to 
raid a marijuana field and ended up shooting and killing a guard who opened 
fire as they approached, officials said.

"Certainly, the folks tending these large gardens will protect them," said 
state Department of Justice spokesman Mike Van Winkle. "We've made 130 
raids this year, but that's the only violence in the gardens.

"Most of the time, these folks are out there for a month or two at a time 
and they get to know the territory real well. They get to know where they 
can go to hide where nobody's going to find them."

Van Winkle said there have been no state marijuana raids in recent years in 
El Dorado County. But Neves, the undersheriff, said that in the past month 
sheriff's officials had discovered two separate marijuana gardens -- one 
with 1,000 plants, the other with 1,700 -- on property adjoining where the 
shootings took place.

One fully mature plant can yield a pound of high-grade marijuana that can 
wholesale for as much as $5,000, Van Winkle said, and state raids so far 
this year have turned up 25 weapons at such sites, including fully 
automatic rifles.

Past raids have turned up booby traps that included shotgun shells placed 
at face height and triggered by trip wires, he said.

State Attorney General Bill Lockyer warned last year of the dangers to 
innocent people from such marijuana fields, Lockyer spokesman Nathan 
Barankin said Monday.

"That does occur," Barankin said. "This is potentially a large danger for 
hikers and campers and hunters."

Because authorities had been unable to find the mysterious pair by late 
Monday, they planned to interview the 4-year-old again.

Investigators are perplexed that neither of the men who helped the wounded 
Hunts into their truck apparently had blood on their clothing, and by the 
fact that Bill Hunt's rifle was not recovered.

"There are any number of sequences of what happened," Neves said. "We have 
no information on which we can draw conclusions."

Staff writers Ted Bell, Andy Furillo, Ralph Montano and Jennifer K. Morita 
contributed to this report.
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