Oregon Hunting Guide Fatally Shot in the Back by Another Hunter During Guided Elk Hunt

Jon Marshall Nichols
Jon Marshall Nichols Facebook

A hunting guide was fatally shot by another hunter as the group approached a herd of elk in Oregon, deputies said.

The shooting happened shortly before 8 a.m. Nov. 10 near Halfway, the Baker County Sheriff's Office said in a Facebook post.

Jon Marshall Nichols, 62, was guiding the hunting excursion, which included Leroy George Trautman, 73, from Beaverton, and Andrew Mark Krebs, 73, from Oregon City, on private property along Fish Creek about a mile and a half north of Highway 86, the sheriff's office said.

The sheriff's office reported that the three men were riding together in a side-by-side off-road vehicle when they saw a herd of elk. They got out, and Trautman reportedly began to chamber a round in his rifle. That's when the gun went off, hitting Nichols in the back.

The men did CPR on Nichols and tried to revive him, but he succumbed to his injuries, deputies said. They used an SOS device to contact authorities. The investigation into the incident is ongoing. Nichols was from Halfway. The city is in northeastern Oregon, near the Idaho border.

Not much is known about the victim, Nichols, but Facebook photos of the man compiled by gunmemorial.org showed that he enjoyed fishing and other outdoor activities.

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