A 63-year-old father accidentally shot his 28-year-old son during a hunting trip in Ohio.
Bradley Smith mistook his son Andrew Smith for a deer while hunting at dusk on December 2, officers from the Delaware County Sheriff’s Office said.
Authorities said the elderly father and his son were hunting around 5:45 am outside Delaware, Ohio when the tragedy happened.
The heartbroken father told authorities that his son was not wearing any hunting clothing when the incident happened, The Columbus Dispatch said.
According to the state’s Department of Natural Resources Division of Wildlife, hunters are required to wear orange while hunting from 30 minutes before sunrise and 30 minutes after sunset.
“It’s just the worst kind of tragedy,” a spokesperson for the Delaware County Sheriff’s Office said to the newspaper. “He thought he was shooting at a deer. It was his son.”
Police said that the father is not facing any charges.
An obituary says that Andrew, who attended Lincoln College in Illinois, graduated in 2014 and played baseball for the Lynx.
He stayed in Lincoln for many years, worked for the college, and volunteered in the Lincoln Rural Fire Protection District.
Andrew later went to Arizona where he lived for a couple of years before going back to Ohio. He attended the State of Ohio Fire Academy and graduated in 2018.
He then worked for the Oberlin Fire Department before moving to Columbus in 2019.
The 28-year-old is survived by his parents, Kathy Allan and Bradley Smith and his sister Bailey Meluch.
Our thoughts and prayers are with the family during this difficult time. Rest in peace, Andrew!
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