How did Rosemary Billquist a Sherman, NY woman end up being shot dead by a hunter while walking her two dogs along trails?
Rosemary Billquist a 43 year old New York woman had died after having been shot by a hunter who believed her to be a deer.
The Chautauqua County Sheriff’s Office told of Rosemary Jafarjian Billquist, of Sherman, having taken her two Labrador dogs for a walk in her hometown near the Pennsylvania border around 5.30pm on Wednesday.
The hunter, Thomas Jadlowski, 34, told deputies he thought he saw a deer in the field and fired his single-shot pistol.
After hearing the woman’s scream, he found her about 200 yards away, called 911 and applied pressure to her wound until EMS arrived.
Billquist was taken to UPMC Hamot hospital in Erie, Pennsylvania, where she was pronounced dead.
Investigators said Jadlowski reported the shooting at 5.24pm, 40 minutes after sunset. It is illegal to hunt after sunset per New York State law.
Rosemary Billquist described as a loving and selfless woman who’d competed in more than 60 marathons.
Told the dead woman’s husband, Jamie Billquist via The Buffalo News, ‘They tried saving her,
Adding, ‘It was just too bad…. It’s horrific. It will be with me the rest of my life.’
Billquist who who met his wife in 1990, said she was was a loving and selfless woman.
Told the husband, ‘She was always out to help somebody. She never wanted credit and was always quiet about it,’
‘She’s just an angel. An angel for sure.’
Billquist was a volunteer at Chautauqua Hospice and at UPMC Chautauqua WCA Hospital, where she worked performing medical transcription.
‘She could have done so much more,’ offered the dead woman’s husband. ‘Her life was cut way too short.’
The woman’s husband went on to say the couple doted on their dogs and that Rosemary was an avid runner, with Jamie estimating his wife had participated in at least 60 marathons, with the pair traveling around the United States so she could run them.
Told Chautauqua County Sheriff Joe Gerace, ‘This is a horrific incident,’
Adding, ‘This destroyed two lives.’
Had it been a habit that other hunters also went hunting after sunset and were policies enforced?
‘Hunters have to understand there are other people using trails, using parks in areas where we as sportsmen hunt,’ Dale Dunkelberger of the state Department of Environmental Conservation’s hunter education program told the Buffalo News.
‘In this case, it appears from what I gathered this was after sunset, and he shouldn’t have been out there hunting after sunset. You’re done. That’s the law.’
It remained unclear what led to Jadlowski hunting beyond sunset. Whether the man had been unaware of the laws, or had simply dismissed such laws? And to what degree other hunters may have also turned a blind eye to such laws and what action, if any in the past authorities had taken against such illegal practices.
Come Thursday night, friends and co-workers held a vigil for the slain woman.
‘They sang and prayed,’ Billquist’s husband said. ‘It was amazing. It was a community thing. I was blessed to be able to share it.’
His wife would have loved it, Billquist said.
‘For sure,’ he said.
To date, sheriff’s officials said Jadlowski has been cooperating with investigation and no charges have been filed.
Rosemary Billquist’s shooting death follows the recent death of Karen Wrentzel who was ‘accidentally’ shot and killed on the first day of Maine hunting season last month in October.
