Walter Moorhead, Salisbury, Maryland man charged with the shooting death of mom of five whom he mistook for deer while hunting in Ellendale, Delaware. Victim identified as Santos Maria Chilel Soto, of Georgetown, Delaware.
An elderly hunter has been charged in the accidental shooting death of a Delaware woman whom he mistook for deer.
Walter Moorhead, 74, of Salisbury, Maryland, faces several charges, including manslaughter, after the fatal shooting involving the mother of five on Sept. 18, according to Delaware State Police.
Moorhead was hunting around 7 p.m. Friday evening in an open field near South Old State Road in Ellendale, Delaware.
Hunter faces several charges including manslaughter amid investigation
He was hunting from a ground blind when he believed he saw a deer and fired his rifle, police said.
The bullet struck 39-year-old Santos Maria Chilel Soto, who was walking through the field with her two children and a man, officials said.
Soto, of Georgetown, Delaware, was a mother of five, according to several reports.
She was taken to an area hospital, where she was later pronounced dead.
Moorhead was taken into custody following a short investigation. State police said they determined he had fired the shot that struck Soto.
He faces several charges, including manslaughter, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, and reckless endangering.
Moorhead posted a $43,000 bond and was released from custody, pending the outcome of the investigation, officials said.
Incidents of fatal firearm discharges involving hunters
Delaware law defines manslaughter as recklessness causing the death of another person. The state considers manslaughter and possession of a firearm to be class B felonies which can carry up to 25 years in prison.
Fatal accidental shootings in the context of hunting are relatively rare, according to a database curated by the International Hunter Education Association (IHEA). The IHEA hunting incident database lists 252 fatal firearm-discharge incidents between 2010 and 2025 (an average of 16.8 annually).
Failure to properly identify a target was among the most common cited factors for those types of incidents, according to the IHEA database.
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