THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, November 24, 1995 TAG: 9511240079
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY STEVE STONE, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SUFFOLK LENGTH: Short : 46 lines
It should have been a good holiday.
Two teenage buddies hiked into the woods near Whaleyville shortly after dawn Thursday. Leaves crackled underfoot; the sky was bright and sunny; the air was crisp with a slight, chilly breeze. It was a great day to hunt deer before returning home for the Thanksgiving repast.
Timothy Lee Russell, who would turn 16 in a week, climbed eight feet to a tree stand - a hunter's perch built on limbs - and scanned the area for a target while his 18-year-old buddy found a spot nearby.
Shortly after 7 a.m., the 18-year-old heard a shot - nothing unusual when you're several days into deer season. About a half-hour later, he made his way back to where Russell had been, only to find his friend on the ground. He was dead.
Exactly what went wrong may never be known, but police said Russell fell from the tree stand and that when he and the shotgun he was carrying hit the ground, the weapon fired. The boy was struck in the abdomen.
``There's no way to tell why he fell,'' said Mike Simpkins, a police spokesman. ``He may have lost his balance on the stand or slipped climbing the ladder.''
The teenagers - whose families are longtime friends - were hunting only a short distance from Russell's home in the 500 block of Little Fork Road.
The 18-year-old, whose name was withheld at the request of his family, told police he heard the shot but thought nothing of it.
``He waited 30 minutes and went toward where Russell was supposed to be,'' Simpkins said. He found the boy on the ground, his gun nearby.
Given the nature of his wounds, police said the delay between the time Russell was shot and when he was found was not significant. ``It wouldn't have made any difference,'' Simpkins said.
Russell was a sophomore at Lakeland High School. ILLUSTRATION: Timothy Lee Russell
KEYWORDS: ACCIDENT HUNTING SHOOTING FATALITY by CNB