After being stabilized at a hospital in Kingsville, Whittington was evacuated by helicopter to a larger facility in Corpus Christi -- where he was placed in the intensive care unit. The Secret Service reported the shooting to the Kenedy County Sheriff's Office; no one from that agency interviewed Cheney until Sunday morning.
The Secret Service said it had turned away one sheriff's deputy at the ranch the night of the accident because arrangements had been made for Cheney to be interviewed the following morning, Associated Press said.
Armstrong said Cheney had spoken with her Saturday evening about disclosing the incident to the public. "We knew word would get out," she said. He urged her to tell friends and family first, before word leaked out to the media.
Late Sunday morning, her daughter, Katharine Armstrong, called a reporter from the Corpus Christi Caller-Times, which then reported the shooting on its website.
Peter Banko, administrator of Christos Spohn Memorial Hospital in Corpus Christi, where Whittington was recuperating, said the injured hunter was cracking jokes -- and was baffled by all the publicity. "He's a true Southern gentleman," Banko said of Whittington at a Monday news conference. "He's really amazed, I think, at all the hoopla over this."
Whittington is a fixture in Texas politics, having worked in Republican campaigns dating to John G. Tower's senatorial run in the 1960s. He's known nowadays for a decades-long battle to prevent the city of Austin from building a parking garage over a downtown block that his family owns. The dispute is still being litigated.
The shooting has aroused sympathy for Cheney in South Texas, where many locals hunt and accept that there is always the risk of an accident. "If it happens every once in a while, we're not alarmed by it," Carlos Valdez, the local district attorney, said of nonfatal accidental shootings.
There were 30 hunting accidents last year in Texas, which issued 1.1 million hunting licenses.
"You can't name a sport where accidents don't happen," said Leroy Sisco, chief executive of the Texas Trophy Hunters Assn., who said he had been inadvertently sprayed by birdshot several times. "Everybody who hunts understands. It's just an accident and, thank God, it's not a serious accident."
Riccardi reported from Corpus Christi and Gerstenzang from Washington. Times staff writers Lianne Hart in Corpus Christi and Peter Wallsten in Washington contributed to this report.*
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Hit and miss
There were about 850 hunting injuries reported in the U.S. in 2002, down 31% over the last decade. Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally injured his companion with a shotgun, the weapon most commonly involved in hunting accidents.
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Weapon involved, 2002
Shotgun: 54.0%
Rifle: 30.7%
Other: 3.0%
Unknown: 4.1%
Handgun: 3.9%
Bow: 4.4%
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Top reasons for accidental shootings, 2002
Failure to identify target: 15.1%
Shooter swinging on game: 12.9%
Careless handling of firearm: 11.9%
Victim out of sight of shooter: 8.5%
Fall while climbing in/out of position: 7.8%
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Sources: International Hunter Education Assn., Associated Press
