Hunter mistook woman for deer in fatal US shooting, police say

WASHINGTON – A hunter is facing a manslaughter charge in the US state of Delaware in the fatal shooting of a woman whom he mistook for a deer while she crossed an open field with three other people, the authorities said.

The man, Walter W. Moorhead, 74, fired his rifle from a ground blind, a tent, shed or other makeshift structure used by hunters to conceal themselves, when he struck Santos Maria Chilel Soto, 39, on a private property on the night of Sept 18 in Ellendale, Delaware, the Delaware State Police said.

Investigators said the shooting occurred around 7.40 pm local time, just over 30 minutes after sunset, in an area dotted with farms, about 120km south of Wilmington, Delaware, and west of Delaware’s well-known coastal resorts.

Soto, who a GoFundMe page said was a mother of five from Guatemala, was with her boyfriend and her boyfriend’s two children when she was shot, according to an arrest warrant. It was not clear why Soto, who lived in Georgetown, Delaware, was on the property.

The victim’s boyfriend told the police that the four of them had been walking together across the field when he heard an explosion and saw Soto fall to the ground with a gunshot wound to her torso, the warrant said.

An older white man, whom investigators identified as Moorhead, approached with a flashlight to search for the deer he thought he had shot, Detective M. Csapo of the Delaware State Police wrote in the warrant.

During an interview with police, the authorities said, Moorhead acknowledged that he had struck Soto.

Moorhead, of Salisbury, Maryland, was also charged with three counts of reckless endangering and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. He was released on a US$43,000 (S$54,900) cash bond.

Efforts to reach Moorhead were not immediately successful on Sept 21. It was not clear if he had a lawyer.

Moorhead had been hunting under what is known in Delaware as a crop damage permit, Corporal Raushan Rich of the Delaware State Police said in an email on Sept 21.

The programme allows commercial farms that experience crop damage to hunt antlerless deer, specifically mature does, more frequently than under normal deer hunting regulations.

The state, which expanded the programme in 2026, allows deer hunting from a half-hour before sunrise until a half-hour after sunset, which was about 7.06pm on Sept 18 in Ellendale.

In Delaware, the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control oversees hunting regulations. It did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Sept 21 or provide a copy of the hunting permit associated with the farm where the shooting occurred.

Details about who owns the property were also not immediately available.

In a Facebook post on Sept 19, Iglesia de Dios Fuente de Verdad Delaware in Georgetown – a Pentecostal church – announced Soto’s death. Organisers of the GoFundMe page were seeking donations to help return Soto’s body to Guatemala. NYTIMES

• This article originally appeared in The New York Times.