‘Accidents happen’: Remembering the time Dick Cheney shot his friend in the face with a shotgun

Dick Cheney is dead at age 84. Uh, I guess rest in peace? Few will mourn Cheney’s passing, with both modern-day Democrats and Republicans united in seeing him as a lying ghoul who pushed the nation into an expensive and pointless war that claimed the lives of thousands of young Americans and achieved precisely zero.

But enough with the mourning, let’s take a look back at that one time Cheney shot his friend in the face with a shotgun.

Feb. 11, 2006, was a fine day on the Armstrong Ranch in South Texas. Cheney probably figured arranging the deaths of millions on the other side of the world was fine, but actually killing something with his own hands would really scratch that murderous itch. And so he set out quail hunting with his friend, 78-year-old Harry Whittington, a prominent Austin attorney.

My deepest condolences go out to Dick Cheney’s shotgun for the tremendous loss it is feeling today

— Mike Abrusci (@mikeabrusci) November 4, 2025

The pair separated for a moment when Whittington went to retrieve a dead bird. Then another flew up next to Cheney. He wheeled around suddenly, aimed his 28-gauge Perazzi shotgun, and blasted – not noticing Whittington was not standing in front of him. Whittington took a round of birdshot to the face, neck, and chest and collapsed.

As Whittington bled into the ground, he stared up at the shotgun-wielding veep and – perhaps afraid Cheney was about to ensure there were no witnesses – gasped out, “I’m sorry, Mr. Vice President.” If you ever want to define true power, remember Cheney’s friend immediately apologizing for getting shot in the face by him.

Oops

I will never forget how Dick Cheney shot his friend in the back on a hunting trip, then had that man stand up on live national TV and apologize for getting in the way of the bullet.

I watched that whole press conference with that lil man saying he was sorry to Cheney like https://t.co/6m4XiZxG2s pic.twitter.com/I6tAjijXBh

— BlacKanSeyKo (@BlackXtian) November 4, 2025

Whittington was then rushed to hospital with a collapsed lung, where he suffered a heart attack after one of Cheney’s birdshot pellets migrated near his heart. He was first placed in ICU, then in a regular ward, where he spent two weeks recovering. Knowing Cheney as he did, Whittington thought it best to brush this off as no big deal, telling him, “Accidents happen”.

He later stated to the press:

“My family and I are deeply sorry for all that Vice President Cheney and his family have had to go through this week.”

The Kenedy County Sheriff’s Office investigated the incident but, for some unknown reason, decided not to press charges against the Vice President of the United States of America. Whittington didn’t press charges either, writing off the whole thing as an unfortunate mishap. The doctors couldn’t remove all the pellets, so Whittington died at age 95 in 2023 with them still in his body.

Whittington was asked in 2010 by The Washington Post whether Cheney ever apologized. He declined to answer.