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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 30, 2017)
WEEKEND EDITION STILL PERFECT TOWN DROWNED OREGON/14A SPORTS/1B PENDLETON’S MISTY MOUTH RELEASES DEBUT MUSIC/3C DECEMBER 30-31, 2017 142nd Year, No. 53 HERMISTON Toddler at home, on mend after gun accident Brother, 7, shot boy in head with unattended gun By JADE MCDOWELL East Oregonian A Hermiston toddler shot in the head on Nov. 10 is home with his family and walking around. Based on interviews and forensic evidence, Hermiston Police Depart- ment believe the boy, 2, was accidentally shot in the head by his seven- year-old sibling with a Baretta handgun that their mother kept in a vehicle. No criminal charges have been fi led in connection with the case. The family is not being identifi ed in order to protect the identities of the two minors involved. But the boys’ mother said the toddler has been home from Legacy Emanuel Medical Center in Port- land for two weeks and is walking around and interacting normally with family. He has another surgery scheduled and has to wear a helmet for the time being to cover the opening in his skull. His mother said she has noticed his refl exes have seemed “a little slow” and doctors have said it is too soon to tell what lingering effects he may have in the future, but they told her the area of the brain that was injured is “pretty forgiving” at such a young age. The family considers his recovery a miracle. On the day of the inci- dent, the boy’s mother was having trouble starting her car and was outside the vehicle trying to fi gure out what was wrong when the seven-year-old got out to join her. In a moment she said she will always regret, she told him to get in See GUN/3A WINNER OF THE 2017 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD $1.50 T H E Y E A R T H E S U N W E N T O U T THE TOP 10 EASTERN OREGON STORIES OF 2017 1 Staff photo by E.J. Harris Henry Greutert and Katie Mertel, both of Mercer Island, Washington, watch the eclipse on Monday, Aug. 21, in John Day. Natural phenomena, major festivals and a new political climate all played roles in the biggest stories in Eastern Oregon this year. 1 Total eclipse of the sun eclipses all else Oregon was right in the path of totality for the Aug. 21 total solar eclipse, an astronomical phenom- enon that won’t touch the West Coast again until 2045. State and local tourism and emergency agencies worked together for a year in anticipation of hundreds of thousands of tour- ists swarming the state to view the biggest celestial event of the new century. Crews with the Oregon Department of Transportation even learned the safest ways to push vehicles to the side of the road to avoid traffi c jams. And wildland fi refi ghters held their breath that a blaze did not spark up and run rampant through the whole thing. The number of visitors to the state was lower than expectations, but none of the bad scenarios came to pass either. Umatilla and Morrow counties were outside the path of total darkness, but thousands of locals donned special sunglasses and watched the sun all but disappear behind the moon during the middle of the morning. The heart of totality was just south in Grant and Baker counties. About the worst local effect was traffi c backing up for a while along Highway 395 in Pilot Rock and at the Columbia River Bridge Year in review Titles for Hermiston foot- ball, Nixyaawii basketball and Riverside soccer lead the Top 10 sports stories. Page 1B See the year’s top photos taken by East Oregonian photographers Page 1C For a video of all the year’s best photos, visit www.eastoregonian.com 2 Staff photo by E.J. Harris in Umatilla as tourists streamed through on their return trips. Still, for 2 minutes and 10 seconds, the length of totality, nothing else much mattered. Marvin Morris of Pendleton uses a snowblower to clear the driveway of a friend’s house on Northwest Bailey Avenue on Wednesday, Jan. 11, in Pendleton. 3 2 Ice and snow shut down roads, schools during nasty winter Schools, highways and inter- states were closed for days at a time during the fi rst two month of 2017, continuing a winter that was the harshest that many people could remember in Umatilla County. Pendleton School District was up to nine missed school days by mid-February, causing the district to join Hermiston in extending the school year by an extra week even after the Oregon Department of Education addressed the extreme weather by allowing schools to See TOP 10/11A Staff photo by E.J. Harris Fair goers walk the promenade Wednesday, Aug. 9, at the Umatilla County Fair in Hermiston.
