Shooting Accidents

Los Angeles police are investigating how a veteran department firearms instructor shot and wounded another officer in the left hamstring at a training facility this week when he mistook a loaded handgun for a mock version of the weapon. The incident occurred about 4 p.m. Monday at the Edward M.

A Utah man visiting relatives in Chino was arrested on suspicion of involuntary manslaughter Saturday in connection with the shooting death of his 23-month-old son. Salt Lake City-area resident Jose Silva, 26, was booked at the West Valley Detention Center in the death of Anthony Silva, who was just three weeks short of his second birthday. Officers responding to a 911 call about 8:15 a.m.

A 16-year-old girl was shot in the face, apparently by accident, in her home, police said Sunday. The teen was found about 2:20 p.m. Saturday by her 20-year-old sister, who ran downstairs after hearing a gunshot, said Officer Mike Lopez of the Los Angeles Police Department. The girl was taken to a hospital, where she was reported in stable condition. Two teenage boys who are believed to be friends of the victim may have been showing her a pistol when it went off, Lopez said.

Although he was not cited with breaking any laws, Vice President Dick Cheney did not have proper hunting credentials when he accidentally shot a fellow hunter at a private ranch over the weekend, authorities said Monday. Cheney, an experienced outdoorsman who had a valid out-of-state hunting license, will receive a formal warning for failing to purchase the required $7 stamp for bird hunting, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department said in a statement.

Once it seemed clear that Austin, Texas, lawyer Harry Whittington would survive getting accidentally shot by Vice President Dick Cheney, the incident became instant fodder for headline writers and comedians. The foreign press zeroed in on the shooting as a metaphor for Cheney's political outlook. The Herald in Scotland wrote, "Cheney Bags a Lawyer," while the Sydney Morning Herald headlined its online story "Cheney Hunts Quail and Everyone Else Ducks." The blogosphere took its shots as well.

The 78-year-old lawyer accidentally shot by Vice President Dick Cheney during a weekend hunting trip suffered a minor heart attack Tuesday, a serious development in an incident that had provided fodder for late-night comedians and embarrassed the White House. Harry Whittington suffered the heart attack when one of the shotgun pellets lodged in his body pressed against his heart and irritated the muscles, officials at Christus Spohn Memorial Hospital said.

Throughout his presidency, George W. Bush has been admired for his ability to set clear goals and doggedly follow a path to achieve them. But Bush and his White House often seem to struggle when pressed to react to unexpected events, a difficulty highlighted Wednesday by the continuing furor over Vice President Dick Cheney's hunting accident and a congressional committee's sharply critical report about the federal response to Hurricane Katrina.

Speaking publicly for the first time since he shot and wounded a hunting companion last weekend, Vice President Dick Cheney took responsibility Wednesday for the accident but defended his decision not to immediately disclose the episode.

For days, the White House press corps has pounded the Bush administration, demanding to learn more about Vice President Dick Cheney's accidental shooting of a hunting companion Saturday. Cheney finally addressed the incident Wednesday, but the forum in which he chose to do so -- in an exclusive interview with Fox News host Brit Hume -- quickly became another source of contention.

President Bush on Thursday broke his public silence about the vice president's shooting of a hunting companion, declaring that Dick Cheney had delivered "a very strong and powerful explanation" of the incident. Meanwhile in Texas, the sheriff's office looking into the shooting said it had ended its investigation and no charges would be filed. Bush said he had no complaints with the manner in which Cheney handled the disclosure of the shooting, which came a day after Saturday's incident.