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Harry Whittington

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This article is about the Texas attorney. For other uses, see Harry Whittington (disambiguation).
Harry Whittington
Born
Harry M. Whittington

(1927-03-03) March 3, 1927 (age 97)
Henderson, Texas
Occupation(s)Lawyer, real estate investor, political figure
SpouseMercedes Baker
Children4

Harry M. Whittington (born March 3, 1927) is an American lawyer, real estate investor, and political figure from Austin, Texas who received international media attention on February 11, 2006, when he was shot by Vice President Dick Cheney while hunting quail with two women on a ranch in Kenedy County, Texas, near Corpus Christi.[1]

Government service

Over the years, he has been appointed to several committees and commissions, including the Office of Patient Protection Executive Committee (a committee formed by the governor of Texas to ensure the rights of patients), the Texas Public Finance Authority Board, and the Texas Department of Corrections. In the 1980s, as an appointee of Gov. Bill Clements, he was instrumental in bringing about reforms necessary for Texas to comply with a federal court order that found the state's treatment of its prisoners unconstitutional.[2] Whittington was named presiding officer of the Texas Funeral Service Commission after a major shakeup of the agency in 1999. He was appointed by then-Texas Governor George W. Bush and re-appointed in 2002 by Governor Rick Perry.[3]

Land dispute

Whittington is a land owner in Travis County, Texas, with property amounting to a reported $11 million. Beginning in 2000, Whittington has been fighting a legal case over the eminent domain seizure of a city block of his property in Austin. The city wants to use the land to build a parking garage. Although he has been successful so far in court (the Texas Supreme Court refused to consider the case, effectively ruling in his favor), the city went ahead and built the garage anyway. In 2013, a Texas district court issued a judgment awarding fee simple title to Block 38 to the city of Austin and ordered that the Whittingtons recover $10,500,000 in compensation.[4]

Hunting incident

Main article: Dick Cheney hunting incident

On Saturday, February 11, 2006, at approximately 5:30 p.m., Whittington was accidentally shot by U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney during a quail hunting trip, at a ranch in south Texas owned by Katharine Armstrong. Most of the damage from the shotgun blast was to the right side of his body, including damage to his face, chest, and neck. He was taken to Corpus Christi Memorial Hospital by ambulance. The accident was not announced in the news media until the White House confirmed the incident to the Corpus Christi Caller-Times approximately 12 hours after the incident.[5]

On February 14, some of the lead birdshot lodged in Whittington's heart caused a minor heart attack.[6][7] Doctors did not plan to remove all the pellets from Whittington's body. They estimated that there were "less than 150 or 200" pellets lodged in his body immediately after the shooting,[8] and about 30 pieces of shot will remain inside him for the rest of his life.[7] On February 17, Whittington made a public statement that "We all assume certain risks in whatever we do. Whatever activities we pursue and regardless of how experienced, careful and dedicated we are, accidents do and will happen."[9] After being released from the hospital, he apologized to the Vice President and his family: "My family and I are deeply sorry for all that Vice President Cheney and his family have had to go through this week."[7]

Following the incident, Whittington returned to private life and refused many media offers for interviews.[7] In an October 2010 issue of the Washington Post, he broke his silence about the shooting.[7] Whittington told the paper that although many media outlets had described Cheney and him as "good friends", the pair had only met one another three times in 30 years, and had never been hunting before.[10] The Washington Post article also claimed that Cheney had violated "two basic rules of hunting safety": he failed to ensure that he had a clear shot before firing, and fired without being able to see blue sky beneath his target.[10] The paper also reported that Cheney has still neither publicly nor privately apologized to Whittington for the shooting.[11]

References

  1. ^ "Texas Cops Release Cheney Shooting Report". The Smoking Gun. February 16, 2006.
  2. ^ Kornblut, Anne (February 13, 2006). "Cheney Shoots Fellow Hunter in Mishap on a Texas Ranch". New York Times.
  3. ^ Perry reappoints Whittington to funeral commission Austin Business Journal. 6 August 2002.
  4. ^ "Whittington v. Austin". 456 S.W.3d 692 (Tex. App. 2015).
  5. ^ Allen, Mike (February 13, 2006). "The Man Dick Cheney Shot". TIME.
  6. ^ "Cheney shooting accident has political echoes". MSNBC.com. February 14, 2006.
  7. ^ a b c d e Farhi, Paul (October 14, 2010). "Since Dick Cheney shot him, Harry Whittington's aim has been to move on". Washington Post. p. 1.
  8. ^ Newman, Maria (February 14, 2006). "Hunter Shot by Cheney Suffers Mild Heart Attack". New York Times.
  9. ^ "Man shot by Cheney: 'Accidents do and will happen'". CNN. February 20, 2006.
  10. ^ a b Farhi, Paul (October 14, 2010). "Since Dick Cheney shot him, Harry Whittington's aim has been to move on". Washington Post. p. 4.
  11. ^ Farhi, Paul (October 14, 2010). "Since Dick Cheney shot him, Harry Whittington's aim has been to move on". Washington Post. p. 5.
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