The bullet lodged beside New Mexico hunting guide Walker Daugherty’s heart can’t be removed because its removal could kill him. But two years after a shooting that left him critically injured and a client wounded, that same bullet has raised more questions about what happened on a 2017 hunt that ended with charges against him and another hunting guide. Ultimately, the bullet that threatens his life led to his being exonerated him of felony charges.
But there’s still no answer to one question that stubbornly remains: who fired it?
On January 6, 2017, Daugherty and guide Michael Bryant were hosting an aoudad hunt on the Circle Dug Ranch near Candelaria, Texas. Daugherty’s family, all seasoned hunting guides, had been hosting hunters on this property for almost a decade.
His clients, Edwin Roberts and his wife, were sleeping in an RV, while Daugherty and Bryant were bunking in the ranch house nearby.
Daugherty says that after the hunting party retired for the evening he heard voices outside. When he went outside the lodge to investigate, he heard the sound of a gunshot, as well as his clients yelling for help from inside the RV.
He retrieved a weapon and he and Bryant rushed to the now moving RV to protect the clients from what they say they thought were intruders attempting to steal the RV with the clients inside.
At the same time, Roberts says he also heard noises coming from outside the RV. He later stated to police he saw two people outside the vehicle holding guns, who said they just wanted the RV.
In a blog post, the attorneys for Roberts, who has filed a personal injury lawsuit against the Daugherty’s Redwing Outfitters, said, “Someone tried to break into the motorhome. Dr. Roberts warned the would-be intruder through the door he was armed and to leave. The intruder responded in English he was going to take the motorhome. Dr. Roberts fired a warning shot through the motorhome’s door.”
The post also says that Dr. Roberts decided he and his wife would be safer if their motorhome were closer to the camp house where their guides were sleeping, so Roberts drove towards the house.
Amid the chaos, Walker headed back to the house to get more ammo. As his sister held the door, he was shot in the chest approximately 10 feet from the entrance.
Dr. Roberts was shot once in the elbow.
Daugherty and Roberts were later airlifted to a hospital in El Paso, where Daugherty spent three months in ICU fighting for his life.
Presidio County Sheriff’s Deputy Joel Nuñez arrived on the scene with several U.S. Border Patrol agents. There, he charged both guides with felony deadly conduct in the discharge of a firearm.
Within days of the incident, Presidio County Sheriff Danny Dominguez was telling multiple media sources this was a case of “friendly fire,” and that approximately 30 Border Patrol officers had used infrared imaging to search the property -- which straddles the Texas/Mexico border -- for intruders, but found none.
With the immigration problems at the border garnering national headlines at the same time, several media outlets implied the guides panicked, and then lied about why the shooting occurred.
Fast forward to October 4, 2019, when the 394th District Attorney’s office filed a motion to dismiss all charges against both the men. A judge signed off on that motion just days ago.
Evidence uncovered by Fort Worth Ballistics expert Richard Ernest, who stated he is 99.9 percent certain the bullet was from a .40-cal. handgun -- a weapon that was not used by the guys on the night of the shooting -- prompted the dismissal.
This evidence had also been earlier confirmed by the state’s own ballistics expert, who indicated it was most likely a .357.
During court proceedings, the District Attorney’s office had offered the guides the opportunity to plead to misdemeanor charges where they would receive probation. They refused, insisting their version of the story was the truth.
When they refused to plea to the lesser charge, the District Attorney’s office at one point drew up papers to re-indict both guides, charging them with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, a third-degree felony, in addition to the deadly conduct in the discharge of a firearm.
THE PERFECT STORM
Presidio County, near Big Bend National Park, is rugged and isolated. It took local law enforcement and medical professionals more than an hour to reach the scene after the 911 call came in.
In the weeks prior to the shooting, the family assisted the U.S. Border Patrol in apprehending intruders illegally in this country who had burglarized their ranch house. They also assisted in the apprehension of others attempting to break into a neighboring ranch house.
The ranch is located in a known smuggling corridor, and the agency had recently conducted two helicopter captures of illegal crossers on the property.
At the time, Walker’s mother, Jennafer Daugherty, said a Border Patrol agent warned them they could become targets for working with the immigration agency.
“Border Patrol agents told us one of the burglars was a convicted felon who had recently been released from a prison in Missouri. This was his fourth capture,” she said.
“We do not deny our client was hit by a bullet that resulted from a horribly fearful and confusing situation. However, the bullet that shot our son was not. That shot came later and from an entirely different direction,” a statement issued by the Daugherty family shortly after the shooting, read.
During the discovery process in the court proceedings, the Border Patrol revealed they did not have the particular technology available to have conducted the infrared imaging Presidio County Sheriff Dominguez had claimed.
NEW EVIDENCE
A trial was scheduled to begin next month. But after an assistant District Attorney and investigator walked the scene where the drama unfolded, things changed.
On September 23, the District Attorney’s office sent the Daugherty’s attorney an email stating their intent to dismiss the charges.
District Judge Roy Ferguson granted the motion to dismiss October 7.
It is an undisputed fact the guides both fired at the RV, trying to hit the tires and disable it, and one of them may have hit the client in the ensuing panic. Unfortunately, it may never be known who was outside the recreational vehicle and shot Daugherty, or the motivation behind it.
—Etta Pettijohn