Wardens are still investigating who pulled the trigger after a 3-year-old and a 34-year-old mentor fired at movement in the woods during the youth-only season.
BURLINGTON, Wis. — A 3-year-old taking part in Wisconsin’s youth turkey hunt wounded a 40-year-old man and a 7-year-old child after the youngster’s 34-year-old mentor helped aim and fire at movement in the woods, officials said.
The shooting happened April 12 at Honey Creek Wildlife Area in Racine County, on the last day of the state’s youth-only turkey hunt. It has drawn attention because it took place during a mentored hunt that state rules allow for hunters who have not completed hunter education, as long as they stay within arm’s reach of a qualified adult. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources said the case remains active, and wardens were still trying to determine who physically pulled the trigger and whether charges would be recommended.
According to published accounts that cited the DNR incident report, two hunting parties were in the same public wildlife area that Sunday when the mentor and 3-year-old spotted movement and what they believed was a turkey fan in the brush. The mentor then knelt with the child and helped position, aim and fire a 12-gauge semiautomatic shotgun toward the movement about 35 yards away. Instead of a bird, the shot struck a man and a 7-year-old child who were in the brush with another hunting setup. Pellets hit the victims in the back, hand and head, leaving both with injuries that authorities said did not appear life-threatening. The adult was treated and released later that day. The child stayed in the hospital until at least April 14 while doctors treated a head wound.
Lt. Renee Thok, the DNR’s hunter education administrator, said one of the injured adults was an off-duty law enforcement officer, but she said that detail does not change how wardens are handling the case. Thok also said investigators do not believe the two hunting parties knew each other before the shooting. Because two of the people involved were young children, the state has not publicly released the names of the minors, and officials also declined to identify the mentors while the review is still underway. In interviews published this week, Thok said the victims were likely turned away from the shooters when the pellets hit them. She also described the area between the groups as brushy but not thick. “It wasn’t a field, either, but there was some cover between them,” Thok said, describing the ground conditions investigators found when they reviewed the scene.
The setting is a large public hunting property. Honey Creek Wildlife Area covers about 1,275 acres across parts of western Racine County and eastern Walworth County, including the Village of Rochester and the towns of Burlington and Spring Prairie. Wisconsin’s youth turkey hunt ran April 11 and 12 this year, just before the regular spring turkey season opened April 15. State rules say the youth hunt is open to hunters under 16 who have a spring turkey license, turkey stamp and harvest authorization. The DNR promotes the hunt as a chance for younger hunters to gain experience before the regular season starts. In mentored hunts, however, the rules are different from standard hunter education. A mentee can be any person under 12, even without first passing a hunter education course, so long as the child has the required approvals and remains within arm’s reach of a mentor.
The mentor also must meet specific rules. The DNR says a mentor must be at least 18, must have proper hunting approval and must either have completed hunter education or qualify for an exemption. In this case, Thok said the adult mentor did not hold a Wisconsin hunter education certificate but was exempt because of military training. State rules also say a mentor may guide only one mentee at a time in the mentored program, and the youth turkey hunt adds its own limits on how many children one adult can accompany. Those rules now sit at the center of the investigation, not because wardens have announced a violation, but because the case requires them to sort through exactly how the hunt was conducted, who handled the shotgun at the final moment and whether every condition of the mentored hunt law was followed on public land.
As of Sunday, April 19, no charges had been announced. Thok said earlier in the week that the investigation was still active and had not yet been referred to a district attorney for review. She said wardens first need to finish interviews, review the physical evidence and determine who actually pulled the trigger before deciding what to forward to prosecutors. Published accounts also said officials were still sorting out which county office would ultimately review the matter if a criminal referral is made. Wisconsin’s hunting incident rules require immediate aid and a prompt report to law enforcement when a firearm discharge during hunting injures another person. Beyond that, the next formal step in the case will be the completion of the warden’s report and a decision by prosecutors on whether the facts support any charge tied to the shooting or the conduct of the mentored hunt.
The case has become more than a simple accident report because it combines several parts of Wisconsin’s hunting system in one moment: a youth-only season, a mentored hunt, public land and two children in separate hunting parties. The DNR’s own mentored hunting page says the program is meant to let first-time hunters take part in a closely controlled setting while a veteran adult stays beside them. Thok said she was relieved that everyone involved was expected to recover. She also used the case to stress how quickly a hunt can change when a target is misidentified. “The DA will decide whether to press charges,” she said in one published interview. In the same interview, she added that the episode should not be read as proof that hunting itself is unsafe, but as a reminder that safety rules matter most in the seconds before a shot is taken.
By the end of the week, both injured hunters had received hospital care, the younger victim had been released after at least a two-day stay, and wardens were still piecing together the events of April 12. The next public milestone is whether investigators send the file to a district attorney and whether any charges follow.
Author note: Last updated April 19, 2026.