Staff Report
An injured Sharon Springs man remained hospitalized in fair condition Sunday, officials said, and the man accused of shooting him in a hunting accident has been arrested.
Lawrence C. Delaney, 68, of 379 Roscoe Jones Road, Cooperstown, was charged at 11:55 a.m. Friday with third-degree assault, a misdemeanor, Otsego County deputies said in a media release Sunday.
Delaney, who turned himself in at the sheriff's office, was accused of acting with criminal negligence and causing physical injury to Walter O. Rouse Jr. by shooting him with a rifle while hunting in the town of Middlefield on Tuesday, deputies reported.
Delaney is to appear in Middlefield Town Court at 5:30 p.m. Dec. 14, deputies said, and if convicted, he faces a sentence of up to a year in Otsego County jail.
Rouse, 37, of Sharon Springs, was in fair condition at Bassett Hospital in Cooperstown on Sunday afternoon, according to hospital spokeswoman Karen Huxtable.
The men were hunting separately when the incident occurred on Roscoe Jones Road at about 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, deputies said. Rouse was part of a group hunting on state land that bordered private property.
Deputies said Rouse became separated from the group and strayed onto posted property on Roscoe Jones Road owned by Delaney. Rouse had stopped to wait for his group to catch up when he was shot by Delaney, deputies said.
Delaney, who was in a hunting blind on the ground about 300 feet away from Rouse, mistook the Sharon Springs man for a deer and fired a round from a .30-30 rifle, deputies said. The bullet hit Rouse in his upper left arm and went into his abdomen, deputies said.
Deputies said Rouse was wearing camouflage clothing without any blaze orange, which can increase visibility.
State Department of Environmental Conservation police helped deputies in the investigation, the media release said.
