A Rangeley woman was accidentally shot in the leg by her husband while they were partridge hunting Tuesday in Aroostook County, the Maine Warden Service said.
Cpl. John MacDonald said Geraldine Botka, 67, was hunting with her husband, Richard, 72, around 10 a.m. near Togue Pond in Township 15, Range 9 when he fired at a partridge and struck his wife in the leg with birdshot pellets.
Game wardens said Geraldine Botka was walking in the woods back toward the couple’s parked truck when the incident occurred. When a partridge flew out of dense foliage, Richard Botka fired one shot at the bird with his 12 gauge shotgun, and three dozen of the birdshot pellets struck his wife in her lower right leg.
Botka transported her to The Aroostook Medical Center in Presque Isle, where she was treated non-life-threatening wounds and released.
The Botkas were not wearing hunter orange, which is not required under state law during this portion of Maine’s hunting season, the warden service said.
The incident remains under investigation.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
