{"id":873,"date":"2026-09-22T14:34:56","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T14:34:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alirthmedia.com\/?p=873"},"modified":"2026-09-22T14:34:56","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T14:34:56","slug":"hunter-shoots-and-kills-woman-after-mistaking-her-for-a-deer-troopers-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alirthmedia.com\/?p=873","title":{"rendered":"Hunter shoots and kills woman after mistaking her for a deer, troopers say"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">ELLENDALE, Del. (Gray News) &#8211; Authorities in Delaware say a 74-year-old hunter is facing charges after he mistook a woman walking through a field for a deer and fatally shot her.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Delaware State Police arrested 74-year-old Walter Moorhead on manslaughter and related charges. While hunting, he allegedly shot and killed 39-year-old Santos Maria Chilel Soto after mistaking her for a deer.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Troopers responded about 7:40 p.m. Friday to an open field in Ellendale for a report of a woman who had been shot. They gave the victim lifesaving medical care before she was taken to the hospital, where she was pronounced dead.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media-item | figure media-item-image article-image w-100\"><figcaption class=\"figure-caption mt-1 px-1\"><span class=\"caption-text\">Walter Moorhead, 74, was arrested on manslaughter and related charges after he allegedly shot and killed a woman he mistook for a deer while hunting.<\/span><span class=\"caption-credit\">(Source: Delaware State Police)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"in-body-element mx-auto ibe-ads-arc-ads\">\n<div class=\"arc-ad | d-flex flex-column ad-type-flex-leaderboard ad-leaderboard include-disclaimer justify-content-center text-center\">\n<div class=\"arc-ad-wrapper |\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Moorhead was taken into custody at the scene.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Troopers say a preliminary investigation revealed Chilel Soto was walking through the field with a man and two children while Moorhead was hunting deer from a ground blind, a type of hunting blind set up on the ground to hide hunters while they wait for game.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Troopers say Moorhead believed he saw a deer and fired his rifle, striking Chilel Soto.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Moorhead is facing felony charges of manslaughter, three counts of first-degree reckless endangering and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. Troopers say he was released after posting a $43,000 cash bond.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The incident remains under investigation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ELLENDALE, Del. (Gray News) &#8211; Authorities in Delaware say a 74-year-old hunter is facing charges after he mistook a woman walking through a field for a deer and fatally shot her. Delaware State Police arrested 74-year-old Walter Moorhead on manslaughter and related charges. While hunting, he allegedly shot and killed 39-year-old Santos Maria Chilel Soto&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":874,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"default","_kad_post_title":"default","_kad_post_layout":"default","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"default","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"default","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alirthmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alirthmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alirthmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alirthmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alirthmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=873"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alirthmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":875,"href":"https:\/\/alirthmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873\/revisions\/875"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alirthmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alirthmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alirthmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alirthmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}