Private pilot located shooting victim

PALMER — Alaska State Troopers on Wednesday released the identity of a Palmer woman who accidentally shot and killed her hunting partner Oct. 10.Lory Gray, 39, called 911 just after 6 p.m., Sunday and told a dispatcher she had accidentally shot her hunting partner, Shawn O’Connell, 27, in the back, according to a press release from Alaska State Troopers.

Gray and O’Connell were floating their canoe from the Old Glenn Highway bridge to the New Glenn Highway bridge Sunday evening when they stopped on the river bank to shoot a porcupine they had spotted in a tree.

Gray shot the porcupine with her .22-caliber handgun and O’Connell walked ahead of her to retrieve the animal. Gray began to follow behind him but tripped on a small stump covered with leaves. She fell to the ground and her handgun discharged. The bullet struck O’Connell in the back.

Gray had her cellphone on her and immediately called 911. She could not tell the dispatcher her exact location, only that she could see Pioneer Peak and that she was on the Knik River between the Old and new Glenn highways.

An effort quickly got under way to locate Gray and O’Connell, as members of Butte ambulance and rescue, Mat-Su water rescue team, Central Mat-Su firefighters and Alaska State Troopers were dispatched to the area.

Butte ambulance and rescue asked pilots in the area to help locate the scene. About 45 minutes after the initial 911 call, Rob Lindemann, a pilot from Anchorage, spotted Gray and O’Connell.

Lindemann located the scene and directed other responders to the location, then landed his plane and began to administer cardiopulmonary resuscitation. A LifeGuard helicopter arrived on the scene prior to Alaska State Troopers and pronounced O’Connell dead.

As ground-based responders approached the scene from the Old Glenn Highway, they discovered the final quarter-mile was a slough of mud and sand that proved impassable with four-wheel drive vehicles. But a member of the Butte fire station used his personal eight-wheeled Argo all-terrain vehicle to transport troopers, rescuers and medics to and from the remote scene.

The state Medical Examiner’s Office conducted an autopsy that revealed the bullet entered O’Connell’s lower back, passed through his abdomen and continued up into his chest, hitting several vital organs — a path consistent with Gray’s account of falling to the ground and the gun discharging.

An investigation is continuing and the final report will be sent to the Palmer district attorney’s office for review.

Contact John Davidson at john.davidson@frontiersman.com.