Montana GOP Senate candidate says he lied to ranger about gunshot wound in 2015 [View all]

Last edited Sat Apr 6, 2024, 03:34 PM - Edit history (4)

Source: Washington Post

Montana GOP Senate candidate says he lied to ranger about gunshot wound in 2015

Tim Sheehy was cited for illegally discharging a weapon in a national park but says he made up the gunshot to cover up a bullet wound he received as a Navy SEAL in Afghanistan that he never reported to superiors

By Liz Goodwin
April 6, 2024 at 1:41 p.m. EDT



Tim Sheehy, a candidate for the U.S. Senate, talks about his campaign on Feb. 9 in Helena, Mont. (Matthew Brown/AP)

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Tim Sheehy, a charismatic former Navy SEAL who is the Republican candidate in a U.S. Senate race in Montana that could determine control of the chamber, has cited a gunshot wound he received in combat that he said left a bullet in his right arm as evidence of his toughness.

"I got thick skin -- though it's not thick enough. I have a bullet stuck in this arm still from Afghanistan," Sheehy said in a video of a December campaign event posted on social media, pointing to his right forearm. ... It was one of several inconsistent accounts Sheehy has shared about being shot while deployed. And in October 2015, more than a year after he left active duty, he told a different story.

After a family visit to Montana's Glacier National Park, he told a National Park Service ranger that he accidentally shot himself in the right arm that day after his Colt .45 revolver fell and discharged while he was loading his vehicle in the park, according to a record of the episode filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Montana.

The self-inflicted gunshot left a bullet lodged in Sheehy's right forearm, according to the written description accompanying the federal citation that the ranger, a federal law enforcement officer, gave Sheehy for illegally discharging his weapon in a national park. The citation said the description was based on Sheehy's telling of events. {snip} "I guess the only thing I'm guilty of is admitting to doing something I never did," Sheehy said of paying a $525 fine for illegally discharging his weapon in the national park; he now says the gun never went off in the park. He added of his platoonmates: "It was a small price to pay to make sure that a whole team of really great Americans didn't get dragged through the mud over this."

{snip}

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By Liz Goodwin
Liz Goodwin covers Congress for The Washington Post. Before joining The Post in 2022, Goodwin covered national politics and served as Washington bureau chief for the Boston Globe. Twitter https://twitter.com/@lizcgoodwin

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/04/06/tim-sheehy-montana-senate-gunshot-wound-national-park/

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A park ranger can easily tell the difference between a fresh gunshot wound and one that was years old. Someone heard a shot and reported it; otherwise the ranger would not have responded to the scene.

The story goes on at length. You've got a link to it.

Which story do you believe? The 2015 self-injury story or the war would story?