Hunter fired his gun at a ‘deer’ — but it was a 72-year-old woman, Arkansas sheriff says

A hunter in Northwest Arkansas thought he had his eye on a deer when he took aim and fired his gun.

But when the bullet struck, it wasn’t a deer that he had shot and killed, the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement posted to Facebook.

Rather, it was a 72-year-old woman who fell victim to the deer hunter, the post says.

Deputies with the sheriff’s office were called to the “tragedy” in Yale at 1:43 p.m. on Sunday, and they arrived at 2:15, according to the statement.

The Johnson County Sheriff said the fatal shot was an accident, KARK reported, as the hunter mistook the woman for a deer.

It was first reported that the woman was also hunting, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported, but now Arkansas Game and Fish Commission spokesman Keith Stephens has said that detail is not confirmed.

The names of the hunter and woman have not yet been released.

The woman’s body has been sent for an autopsy, the sheriff’s office said in the release, and the investigation is ongoing. The district attorney will review the case for “possible criminal charges.”

Earlier this month, McClatchy reported that a dog named Charlie shot his hunting owner. “It was a freak accident,” the New Mexico hunter said, and he forgave Charlie.

In Iowa this year, a squirrel hunter shot his brother, McClatchy previously reported. The brother received non-life-threatening injuries. At the time, officials said they believed the shooting was an accident.

In 2016, a 29-year-old woman was killed in an “apparent hunting accident,” the Democrat-Gazette reported. She wasn’t wearing orange when a hunter mistook her for a deer.