Delaware State Police have arrested a 74-year-old Maryland man after a woman was fatally shot while walking through a field in Ellendale Friday evening.
Troopers responded to an open field near South Old State Road, north of East Robbins Road, at approximately 7:40 p.m. on September 18 for a report of a woman who had been shot. Troopers provided medical care before the victim was transported to an area hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
The victim was identified only as a 39-year-old woman from Georgetown. Her name is being withheld pending notification of her family.
According to the preliminary investigation, the woman was walking through the field with a man and two children while 74-year-old Walter Moorhead, of Salisbury, Maryland, was hunting deer from a ground blind. Police said Moorhead believed he saw a deer and fired his rifle, striking the woman.
Troopers contacted Moorhead at the scene and determined he had fired the shot. He was taken into custody, and the Delaware State Police Homicide Unit assumed the investigation.
Moorhead was charged with felony manslaughter, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony and three felony counts of first-degree reckless endangering.
Following his arraignment, Moorhead was released after posting a $43,000 cash bond.
