November 4, 2012
By Steve Wagner, BemidjiPioneer.com
BEMIDJI – For the first time in three years, Don Bixby, 64, packed up his hunting gear and took a lunch for the start of Minnesota’s firearm deer hunting opener.
Within a few hours of sunrise Saturday, Bixby’s hunt took a terrible turn.
At 9:01 a.m., the Beltrami County Sheriff’s Office received a call reporting a man had been struck by a bullet from another hunter on public land near Concordia Language Villages, about nine miles northeast of Bemidji.
By the time deputies, ambulance personnel and a state Department of Natural Resources conservation officer arrived to the Turtle River Township location, Don Bixby had died from the injuries.
Many of the details are not available, but Nikki Bixby said the bullet traveled about 240 yards before it struck her father, who was standing next to the pickup when he was hit.
On Sunday afternoon, the Sheriff’s office identified the other hunter as 48-year-old Phillip Bruce Nyland of the Bemidji area.