8 Shot, 3 Fatally, During Latest Hunting Season

Conservation officials say eight people were shot, three of them fatally, during the 2018 fall deer and turkey hunting seasons.

The Springfield News-Leader reports that the Missouri Department of Conservation says two of the fatal shootings happened at hunting camps and the third happened in the field. The victims were identified previously as 52-year-old Randy Reising, of Arnold, 70-year-old Charles Bark, of Marengo, Illinois, and 24-year-old Justin Atchison, who was an assistant football and baseball coach at Willard High School.

Of the five non-fatal incidents, four were self-inflicted and the fifth occurred when the hunter shot a victim while swinging on game.

Conservation officials say hunters killed 290,339 whitetails during Missouri’s various deer hunting seasons in 2018-2019, an increase from the 284,477 whitetails that were taken in the 2017-2018 season.