Boy, 8, struck by bullet during apple orchard visit

By Bob Fenske, editor@nhtrib.com

An 8-year-old boy was shot Sunday afternoon while visiting an apple orchard near Nashua.

According to a press release from the Chickasaw County Sheriff’s Office, the 8-year-old boy was at Apples on the Avenue, which is located just south of Nashua, when he was struck by a bullet that was fired from one of several shooting ranges at the Nashua Fish and Game Club.

The gun club is located about three-eighths of a mile west of the orchard.

“Staff at the game club have worked with law enforcement and have closed the facility until further notice, pending the outcome of the investigation,” Sheriff Martin Hemann said in the press release.

Deputies were called to the scene around 3 p.m., and Hemann said the victim was taken by the Chickasaw Ambulance Service to the Waverly Health Center and then flown by Mercy Air Med to University of Iowa Hospitals.

Hemann said the firearm and other evidence is being sent to the Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) Criminalistics Laboratory in Ankeny.

“[We are] awaiting confirmation on the firearm believed to have been used in this incident before finalizing the investigative report,” Hemann said.

Information on the victim is not being made available at this time.

The Sheriff’s Office is being assisted in the investigation by the Nashua Police Department, the Iowa State Patrol, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources and the DCI.