November 21, 2012
By Craig Crosby, OnlineSentinel.com
WALES — In the fading visibility of twilight Tuesday afternoon, two hunters aimed their rifles at a deer in the woods.
Both men were hunting separately, pulled the trigger.
One hunter, Christopher Austin, fired twice. His second shot blasted through the woods and hit an unexpected target: the other hunter, Gerard Parent.
Those details emerged Wednesday as the Maine Warden Service continued to investigate the fatal shooting off East Road. Cpl. John MacDonald of the Maine Warden Service said investigators are still trying to figure out what went wrong, including whether Parent and Austin fired their first shots simultaneously.
Austin’s bullet hit Parent in the throat, according to emergency dispatch reports.
Parent, 49, lived on nearby East Road, and Austin, 41, lives on nearby Andrews Road.
Both men used rifles, were hunting separately, and were pursuing the same deer, according to a warden service news release Wednesday.