Hunting Mass. trooper accidentally shoots woman

NORTON, Mass. -- A Norton woman was shot by a hunter in the woods behind her home.

Cheryl Blair, 66-years-old, was left with a bullet lodged in her hip.

Her husband said she was walking her dogs on the trail behind her home. He said she walks the trail twice a day, every day and that was where she was New Year’s Eve night when she was fired on.

“The Norton Fire Safety office called me and said your wife has been injured, she’s back here. I thought maybe she had hurt her leg or something, it’s dark. We came back, I heard someone say, she’s been shot,” said Jim Blair, the victim’s husband.

“She was on the ground, she was more concerned about her dogs, she was obviously in shock, she was in some pain but honestly, completely calm,” said Nick Blair, the victim’s son.

Cheryl’s husband Jim and her son helped paramedics get through their four acres of woods to her location.

Police said the hunter is a Massachusetts State Trooper and a neighbor of the Blair family.

Investigators said the hunter mistook Cheryl’s dogs’ tails for deer tails and fired a single bullet in their direction.

Cheryl was hit in the abdomen and when the trooper realized what he had done, he called 9-1-1.

“This was an accident. I am a hunter, I’m not going to give up hunting, this was an accident,” said Jim Blair.

Cheryl’s husband is an experienced hunter himself and said it was the last few minutes of daylight, on the last day of the season when his wife was shot.

He said he knows accidents can happen but the trooper could have made a better judgment call.

“I know people hunt back here, it’s okay with me. I want them to be safe,” said Jim.

Cheryl will be home in a few days and is expected to make a full recovery.

The Blairs said they realized just how lucky they are.

“Two weeks earlier, that man would have been hunting with a different type of gun and it would have killed her,” said Jim.

Cheryl Blair was in the intensive care unit Sunday night at a Rhode Island hospital. She was listed in fair condition.

The trooper will not be charged.

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