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.