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Fatal Shooting of Bird-Hunting Guide Raises Alarm for MD Officials

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CUMBERLAND, Md. (AP) - A newspaper reports that a Maryland Department of Natural Resources police commander expressed alarm about safety regulations after a bird-hunting guide was fatally shot on a private game preserve on the Eastern Shore.

The Cumberland Times-News reported Tuesday on an email it obtained through the Public Information Act.

Capt. Rob Kersey sent the message to the agency's wildlife chief two days after Marvin Coppage was accidentally shot by a juvenile during a pheasant-and-partridge hunt at Schrader's Outdoors near Henderson Oct. 10.

The state hunting guide says game preserve clients need not have passed a hunter safety course. Kersey wrote that the exemption applies only to nonresidents hunting wild waterfowl.

Spokesman Stephen Schatz said Wednesday the department's routine, biennial review of hunting and shooting regulations should be finished by May.

Don Rush is the News Director at Delmarva Public Media. An award-winning journalist, Don reports major local issues of the day, from sea level rise, to urban development, to the changing demographics of Delmarva.