Harry Whittington, lawyer shot in face by VP Dick Cheney in 2006, dies

The Texas lawyer shot in the face by former Vice President Dick Cheney is dead.

Harry Whittington, a prominent Republican attorney who became a national figure after being injured in a 2006 quail hunting mishap, died Saturday following a short illness, the Texas Tribune reports.

The 95-year-old attorney worked for presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush prior to his injury on a 50,000-acre ranch near Corpus Christi, TX., when the latter president’s second-in-command turned to shoot a bird and fired buckshot into Whittington’s chest, neck and face.

“All I remember was the smell of burning powder,” he told The Washington Post four years after the shooting. “Then I passed out.”

The incident became fodder for late night comics when Whittington said he was “deeply sorry” the vice president was criticized over the “accident.”

Katharine Armstrong, the Bush-Cheney campaign fundraiser who owns the ranch where Cheney was shot, said “Mr. Cheney was very apologetic” immediately after the shooting. But when asked in 2010 if Cheney apologized to him, Whittington sharply told the Post “I’m not going to get into that.”

Whittington admittedly had little recollection of the gunfire responsible for his week in intensive care. He reportedly suffered a minor heart attack caused by birdshot embedded in his chest. The injury left him with a warble in his voice for several years, he told the Post. He’s believed to have died with pellets still in his body.

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Whittington said in 2018 his relationship with Cheney remained cordial. He told the Post he felt “lucky” to survive the adventure.

“I just feel like every day is a gift,” Whittington said. “Sometimes I wonder why I got these extra years.”