Hunting mishaps reported> Leeds man critical after being shot

GRAY — Game wardens investigated three apparently accidental shootings Friday as hunters fanned out across the Maine woods in hopes of bagging a deer before the traditional season ends Saturday.

Eugene White, 32, of Leeds, was in critical condition at Central Maine Medical Center after he was shot in the left shoulder while hunting in some tall grass in Leeds. The bullet exited in his chest.

White was with five other relatives when one of them apparently mistook him for a deer, said Paul Reynolds, spokesman for the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.

The shooter was identified as Mike Burgess Jr., 25, also of Leeds.

In another accident, Richard Rogers of New Gloucester was grazed in the right shoulder by a shot fired by a member of his hunting party in Gray.

Rogers, 43, was treated at Maine Medical Center in Portland after being shot by his father-in-law, Donald Lawless of Portland, said Warden Gregg Sanborn. Rogers was released from the hospital.

Darren Fredette, 25, of Augusta, was shot in the leg with buckshot while hunting in Richmond, Reynolds said. He was treated at Kennebec Valley Medical Center and released.

Fredette’s uncle, Andre Turcotte, 36, of Richmond, told wardens he shot at what he thought was a deer in a fur thicket, Reynolds said.

Maine’s 90 game wardens were out in force as good weather beckoned hunters in the final days of the regular firearm season.

Biologists say Maine’s deer herd is healthy this year and deer are plentiful.

Wardens will turn over their reports in each of the shootings to the county district attorneys, who will determine whether to file charges.