BREAKING from WaPo: The Accidental Parking Lot Gunshot Sheehy Claims Never Happened was Reported by a Park Visitor

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, April 17, 2024

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Reporting by Washington Post looks at newly-released documents from National Park Service that also show Sheehy asked for leniency and apologized
 

Helena, MT – Breaking reporting from the Washington Post looks at newly-released documents from the National Park Service, which contradict Tim Sheehy’s story that he lied about accidentally shooting himself in the arm in Glacier National Park.

On the campaign trail, Sheehy has repeatedly referred to the bullet in his arm as being from Afghanistan. Then last week, the Washington Post reported a citation Sheehy received in 2015 for discharging a firearm into his arm in Glacier Park. Sheehy claimed last week that he lied to park rangers about shooting himself in the Park in order to cover up an older gunshot wound from Afghanistan that he believed was friendly fire. 

Now, documents revealed that a park visitor called in the accidental gun discharge in Logan Pass that Sheehy claims never happened. Washington Post reports: “That differs from Sheehy’s current account, that law enforcement was first contacted by personnel at a hospital that treated him for wounds that he now says he received from falling during a hike.”

Read more below: 

Washington Post: Sheehy apologized and asked for leniency after alleged 2015 gun incident
April 17, 2024
Liz Goodwin

• Republican Senate candidate Tim Sheehy apologized and asked for leniency in 2015 after he said a gun he kept in his vehicle for bear protection fell and discharged, striking him in his right forearm in Glacier National Park, according to new National Park Service documents released through a Freedom of Information Act request.

• The new documents, which provide additional detail about an incident first reported by The Washington Post this month, include a detailed written statement from Sheehy to a law enforcement officer regarding Sheehy having accidentally shot himself on Oct. 18, 2015 — an account that he now says was a lie.

• “As a highly trained and combat experienced wounded veteran, I can assure you this was an unfortunate accident and we are grateful no other persons or property were damaged,” Sheehy, a former Navy SEAL, said in the 2015 statement apologizing for illegally discharging his weapon in the park. “Due to my ongoing security clearance and involvement with national defense related contracts, I request leniency with any charges related to this unfortunate accident.”

• Sheehy, who has told voters he has a bullet in his arm from his time serving in Afghanistan, told The Post he made up the 2015 accidental gunshot story on that October day to cover up a wound he says he received in a 2012 firefight in Afghanistan.

• A National Park Service summary of the incident, which was also included in the newly released documents, says an unidentified park visitor reported an accidental gun discharge in Logan Pass. That differs from Sheehy’s current account, that law enforcement was first contacted by personnel at a hospital that treated him for wounds that he now says he received from falling during a hike.

• The Park Service documents about the incident add to another record of the episode, filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Montana, which said Sheehy told a ranger that he accidentally shot himself in the right arm that day when his Colt .45 revolver fell and discharged while he was loading his vehicle in the park. He went to the hospital in Kalispell to treat his wounded arm, the records say, and first spoke to the ranger who responded to the incident there.

• The ranger’s report says “a park visitor called park dispatch” to report an accidental gun discharge at Logan Pass that day. The ranger was headed to Logan Pass to investigate the report from that unnamed visitor when park dispatch informed him that the person who fired the gun was at the Kalispell emergency room with a gunshot wound, the report said. The ranger drove there instead.

• Hospital officials have declined to comment on the specific incident. A spokeswoman said the hospital follows Montana state law requiring them to report gunshot and stabbing victims to the police.

• The campaign said this month that Sheehy was attempting to obtain medical records from his ER visit that day. Asked last week about whether he had received his medical records, the campaign declined to comment and directed The Post to Sheehy’s lawyer.

• Sheehy has offered varying accounts of how many times he was shot while serving and under what circumstances. In his 2023 memoir, “Mudslingers,” Sheehy wrote in one passage that he received multiple bullet wounds in Afghanistan. In another, he wrote that his body was hit by a bullet just once. In the book, he also offers varying accounts of how he was shot.

• In one such account, Sheehy writes that he didn’t report being struck by a ricochet bullet because it was caused by friendly fire and he didn’t want the “total stud” who shot him to get into trouble. He now says he does not know for sure if he was wounded by friendly or enemy fire, and that there was not one particular person he believed could have been responsible.

• [Sen. Steve] Daines said it was up to Sheehy whether he should release the medical records from the hospital. “That’s his decision to sort that out,” Daines said of whether to release medical records.

• [Rep. Ryan] Zinke said it was Sheehy’s decision whether to release his records from his ER visit. “I released my entire record and they were shocked on what an outstanding record looks like,” Zinke said[.]

• “There was a lot of hostility from Rosendale supporters toward Sheehy and these kinds of stories about Sheehy are not going to help heal that rift,” said Matthew Monforton, a former Republican member of the Montana state legislature who broke with the party and is now a libertarian. “There’s a real fear that Sheehy was not vetted well.”

• Brad Johnson, the former secretary of state of Montana and Sheehy challenger in the June Republican primary, slammed Sheehy in a statement provided to a local TV outlet. “This is what you get when a couple of DC insiders like Mitch McConnell and Steve Daines anoint an unknown, untested and unvetted candidate and then dictate to Montana Republicans who their nominee to the United States Senate is going to be,” he said.

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