In this version, the Secret Service notified the sheriff's office immediately after the shooting:
An investigation by the Kenedy County Sheriff's Department is ongoing and the report will not be released until it is complete, likely in several days, sheriff's officials said.
Kenedy County Chief Sheriff's Deputy Gilberto San Miguel Jr. spent most of Monday in Corpus Christi interviewing witnesses and visiting Whittington.
Sheriff Ramon Salinas said he received a call from Secret Service officials 10 minutes after the shooting Saturday. Sheriff's officials interviewed Cheney on Sunday morning at the ranch.
One of the other people in the hunting party, Ambassador Pam Willeford, is quoted saying, "He's [Cheney] very experienced, very safe. It's a very unfortunate accident."
Unfortunate it certainly is. But if Deadeye Dick is "very experienced" and normally "very safe", what was it that made this time different?
This part of the original cover story is sounding pretty strange:
Katharine Armstrong, one of the owners of the ranch, said the family's priority Saturday was to address Whittington's injuries, and thus it didn't occur to the family right away to contact the authorities, she said.
"The sheriff came the next morning and took a statement," Armstrong said. "It did not even occur to me. It was not like somebody had robbed a filling station. It was not like a criminal thing."
That's pretty telling. Some working-class kid robs a service station, that's a job for the law. The Vice President blasts some guy in the face with a shotgun, hey, no big deal.
How does this square with the claim that the Secret Service notified the sheriff's office 10 minutes after the shooting?
A piece of birdshot was either touching or embedded in Harry Whittington's heart and caused a minor heart attack about 6:30 a.m., said Peter Banko, vice president and administrator of Christus Spohn Hospital Memorial.
Whittington underwent cardiac catheterization, a procedure to measure blood pressure within the heart and how much oxygen is in the blood. It also is used to get information about the pumping ability of the heart muscle, according to the American Heart Association.
Dr. David Blanchard, the hospital's director of emergency services, said heart irritation caused by a 5 millimeter BB lodged in or near Whittington's heart was diagnosed during a morning examination.
The first official cover story didn't say anything about a BB that penetrated to the heart. The original story was that he was more bruised than anything.
I agree with this comment from John Aravosis about the appropriateness of making jokes about the shooting:
I expect Jon Stewart and Jay Leno to make jokes about this incident. That's their job. But, for Scott McClellan and Jeb Bush to make fun of the whole thing is just creepy and incredibly unseemly.
How is the WH dealing with this mess? Apparently, the President, his Press Secretary and his staff have decided that when Dick Cheney shoots a man in the face, neck and chest with a shotgun, it's a laughing matter for the formal WH staff. Including the President.
Nice. Really great example to set for young people. Next time I speak to my police and prosecutorial buddies, I'll ask them how much fun it is to have to deal with the "Well, Dick Cheney did it, and didn't do any jail time." defense in a reckless endangerment or improper control of firearms case. Really, oh so helpful for law enforcement. Idiots.
Why not ask the Whittington family, with the patriarch just out of three days in the ICU and still in the hospital with more than 200 pellets in his system -- some of which could travel through his bloodstream at any time now and block blood vessels in his brain -- how funny they find this incident. Did I mention that Cheney shot him in the face, neck and chest? Any idea how dangerous that is? Or painful. But the WH has decided to just laugh it off.
No more personal responsibility lectures from any of these people. That's just pathetic.
