Cops: Woman Dead After Hunter Thought He Saw a Deer

Police say hunter took the shot after sunset
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 25, 2017 6:00 AM CST
Cops: Hunter Who Thought He Saw a Deer Kills Woman
Thomas Jadlowski is shown in an image from his firearms license.   (Chautauqua County Sheriff's Office)

A western New York woman was shot and killed while walking her dogs Wednesday night—by a hunter, police say. Deputies say Thomas Jadlowski, 34, thought he spotted a deer in a field in the Town of Sherman and fired; he told authorities he then heard a scream and went to investigate, WKBW reports. In the field, about 200 yards away, he found 43-year-old Rosemary Billquist with a gunshot wound; he called 911 and applied pressure to the wound until emergency personnel arrived, but Billquist died at a nearby hospital. Jadlowski appeared to have fired the shot after sunset, Buffalo News reports; the call came in at 5:24pm and the sun set at 4:46pm. That's after the legal limit for deer-hunting hours; it's unclear whether charges will be filed.

"Hunters have to understand there are other people using trails, using parks in areas where we as sportsmen hunt," says an instructor for the state's hunter education program. "In this case, it appears from what I gathered this was after sunset, and he shouldn't have been out there hunting after sunset. You're done. That's the law." Billquist's husband tells the Buffalo News his wife was behind their house, just 100 yards or so away, when she was shot. "There's rules. You should abide by them. ... It's disturbing. It's a two-second decision that he'll regret for the rest of his life," he says of the hunter, who lived nearby. "Supposedly it was 200 yards away. He thought it was a deer, which is hard for me to believe," he adds, per the Washington Post. "If you don’t know what it is, why shoot?" (More shooting death stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X