UPDATE: Police identify deer hunter accidentally shot by brother

IONIA COUNTY, MI – A hunter was seriously wounded Saturday, Nov. 16, when he was accidentally shot by his brother.

The victim, a 28-year-old Lowell man, was airlifted from the scene in Ionia County. His brother, a 29-year-old Saranac man, told police he accidentally shot his brother with a muzzle-loader rifle thinking he was shooting at a deer that had been wounded.

Sheriff’s deputies and Saranac firefighters were dispatched around 5:30 p.m. to a field near Bell Road and West Grand River Avenue in Boston Township where the hunter had been shot.

Sheriff’s deputies found the brothers, who had been hunting together.

“Investigation on the scene and in follow up interviews determined this was by all accounts an accidental shooting that occurred after the men were looking for a deer that one brother had shot earlier with his muzzle loading rifle,” the Sheriff’s Department said in a statement.

The brothers could not find the deer and were ending the search when they became separated in the dense cornfield. The brother who fired the shot was some distance away when he thought he saw the deer moving. He heard what he thought was the deer moving and fired, hitting his brother.

After firing the shot, he realized he had hit his brother and immediately called 911.

The brothers walked out of the cornfield where first responders provided medical help.

An Aero Med helicopter took the victim from the scene to Spectrum Health Butterworth Hospital. He was listed in serious but stable condition, sheriff’s deputies aid.

The incident is under investigation but police said the brothers were cooperative.