Harry Whittington, the Texas attorney and prominent state GOP powerbroker who was shot in the face by then-Vice President Dick Cheney nearly two decades ago, has died. He was 95 years old.
Whittington’s wife, Mercedes Baker, The New York Times confirmed on Monday. That her husband passed away peacefully at home on Saturday morning after a brief illness.
Whittington, a longtime Austin-based attorney, made international headlines in February 2006 when Chaney accidentally shot him in the face and body while hunting in a sprawling South Texas ranch.
Whittington, who was 78 at the time, was riddled with dozens of small birdshot pellets and lost consciousness. It was called a minor heart attack at the time because the blood vessels near his heart were attacked.
When the victim left the hospital a week later, his face badly discolored and still bearing the bird’s scars, he stunned the world when he issued a public apology to China. .
“We all take some risks with everything we do … accidents happen and will continue to happen,” Whittington said. “My family and I are very sorry for all that Vice President Cheney and his family have had to go through this past week.”
“We send our love and respect to them, as they deal with situations that are much more serious than this week,” he added.
“We hope he continues to come to Texas and get the relief he deserves.”
Cheney’s aides initially tried to blame Whittington for getting in the way on his way to retrieve the shot quail, but in a later interview on Fox News, the vice president took responsibility for what happened. “I pulled the trigger,” he admitted.
The incident sparked a thousand late-night jokes directed at Cheney, and was featured in the 2018 film “The Voice,” directed by Adam McKay and starring Christian Bale in heavy prosthetics. Bagman starred as President George W. Bush’s powerful VP.
At the time of the film’s release, Whittington, then 91, sat down. Interview with Corpus Christi Caller To talk about his brush with death.
He said the last thing he remembers before passing out was the smell of gunpowder in the air.
Whittington said she and Chaney stayed in touch after the shooting and even went to dinner together earlier this year, but she described the two as “just acquaintances.”
Whittington also told the newspaper that he still had some bullets lodged in his body, and that he had stopped hunting because of his advanced age.
In her memoir, “In My Time,” published in 2011, Cheney said she was “deeply sorry” for what Whittington and her family had gone through.
The former vice president said that the day of the hunting accident was the saddest day of my life.
Cheney, 82, had not publicly commented on Whittington’s death until Monday.
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