Officials: Hunting victim accidentally shot himself

By Staff

Published: November 12, 2008

6:14 p.m.:

GRETNA — The Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries says the man who died in a hunting incident Tuesday accidentally shot himself.

Wayne P. Logan, 57, of Gretna, died after his 12-gauge shotgun, which he had slung around himself with the sling partly tied to the trigger guard, fired into his chest Tuesday morning while hunting rabbits with friends off Terry Road, Julia Dixon, spokeswoman with the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, said Wednesday.

Dixon said officials are unclear how the incident occurred.

Logan’s widow, Rhonda Logan, said she wasn’t sure how the shooting happened, calling it a “fluke accident.” 

According to an obituary, Wayne P. Logan, 57, of 1839 Millstream Road, Gretna, died as a result of a hunting accident Tuesday morning.

A man was shot and killed Tuesday morning in a hunting accident off Terry Road.

The Pittsylvania County Sheriff’s Office received a report about the fatal shooting at 11:20 a.m., Sheriff Mike Taylor said.

A group of men were hunting on a farm off Terry Road when one of them was shot, Taylor said.

“That’s all we know at this point,” he said Tuesday afternoon. “It’s a terrible tragedy.”

The sheriff also said the name of the victim is being withheld until his family is notified. The Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries is assisting the sheriff’s office with the investigation.

Pittsylvania County has had its share of hunting accidents. There have been five accidental shootings in the past 10 years.

In December 2005, 27-year-old Adam Morris was hunting off Glenview Drive in Callands when he was shot in the leg with several buckshot pellets from a shotgun.

Lewis Wall, president of Davenport Energy, was struck with six birdshot pellets in his face and three in his elbow during an annual dove hunt held by Chatham businessman and philanthropist Ben Davenport in September 2005.

Just before Christmas 2002, a juvenile was shot in the leg about five miles west of Gretna in what was described as a hunting-related incident. The shooter was an adult and the juvenile victim was treated at Danville Regional Medical Center.

Barney Taylor Young II served two years in a state penitentiary and eight months in the Danville Adult Detention Center in connection with the accidental shooting death of his friend, Christopher Thomas Gauldin, stemming from a Dec. 29, 2000, incident. Young was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter, possession of a firearm after being convicted of a felony, conspiracy to take game illegally for hunting on city and private property, and trespassing.

Keith Dean Lawson, of Dry Fork, was charged with involuntary manslaughter and other offenses in November 1999 for a hunting accident involving a man and dog he mistook for a turkey and shot about eight miles east of Gretna. He also was charged with reckless handling of a firearm and trespassing in the death of Kevin Scott Dalton, 28, and his dog.