A New York woman was shot and killed by a hunter, who apparently thought she was a deer, according to reports.
Rosemary Billquist, 43, killed by a single shot as she walked her dogs in Chautauqua County, located in Western New York near the Pennsylvania border.
Officials said that Thomas Jadlowski, 34, thought he saw a deer in a field 200 yards away when he opened fire, the New York Post reported.
Jadlowski heard a scream and rushed to her before calling 911 and applying pressure to her wound, the office said.
No charges were filed against him. An investigation is ongoing, according to the New York Post.
Officials, however, said the shooting took place about 40 minutes after sunset, which is illegal, NBC New York reported.
He was also using a pistol.
Billquist was taken to the hospital on Wednesday in Erie and later died of her injuries, the Chautauqua County Sheriff’s Office confirmed.
“I know she’s touched so many lives with her kindness and would help anyone no matter what,” Billquist’s husband wrote on Facebook Thursday. “Plz everyone have thanksgiving with your family’s and enjoy those moments they are precious.”
“I will miss you and love you forever and I know you dancing in heaven with your momma and all of our friends and family that we have lost,” he added.
The Buffalo News wrote more on the case:
[Husband] Jamie Billquist was watching TV at his home on Armenian Road in Sherman Wednesday night when he heard his dogs barking.
His wife, Rosemary, had just taken their Labs, Sugar and Stella, out for a walk in the field behind their house after getting home from work.
He went outside to see why the dogs were barking and saw an ambulance pull into his driveway.
“Jamie, we’ve got a gunshot wound,” an EMT who happened to be a friend of Billquist’s said to him as he rushed into the field.
The victim was Rosemary. He rode with her in the ambulance to UPMC Hamot in Erie, Pa., where she was pronounced dead.
Jadlowski was identified as a neighbor of Billquist, according to the newspaper.
“They tried saving her,” her husband said Friday. “It was just too bad. … It’s horrific. It will be with me the rest of my life.”
He used a high-powered, single shot handgun that’s used for hunting deer, Sheriff Joe Gerace said.
“This is a horrific incident,” Gerace said. “….This destroyed two lives.”
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