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Failure to report Investigation launched into Knight shooting
Posted: Friday October 22, 1999 06:34 PM
LADYSMITH, Wis. (AP) -- A medical clinic is under investigation for failing to tell police about a gunshot wound after Indiana University basketball coach Bob Knight accidentally shot a friend while grouse hunting, the Rusk County sheriff said Friday. Sheriff Dean Meyer said he was waiting for reports from a state conservation warden who is looking into how the Ladysmith clinic handled the matter. "I am sure we will bring it to a conclusion and find out why and make sure it doesn't happen again," Meyer said. Thomas Mikunda, 49, of Exeland, was treated Oct. 12 at Marshfield Clinic-Ladysmith Center after being shot in the back and upper shoulder when Knight's 20-gauge shotgun accidentally discharged as he attempted to aim at a grouse, the state Department of Natural Resources said. A game warden said Friday that Knight did not accompany Mikunda to the clinic and he returned home to Indiana after the incident. Knight had issued no statement regarding the shooting, the sports information office at Indiana University said. Knight did not immediately return a telephone message left at his office Friday by The Associated Press. Under Wisconsin law, doctors must report all gunshot wounds to law enforcement agencies. The Ladysmith clinic's medical director, Dr. Doug DeLong, said the physician who treated Mikunda was not aware that a wound from shotgun pellets needed to be reported, which is why authorities weren't contacted at the time. Mikunda was struck by 16 pellets, the DNR said. The clinic treated him and he went home. "Any type of gunshot wound is a serious situation. I would think they would have reported it to us and would know they have the obligation to report it," Meyer said. Under state law, Knight also was required to report the accidental shooting to law enforcement authorities. That did not occur, so Knight was being cited for failure to report a hunting accident and for hunting without a nonresident small game license in 1999 and 1998, the DNR said. The fines for each of the three citations is $165, the DNR said. Game warden Gerald Carow said Friday the investigation into the shooting started with a rumor he had heard in a Ladysmith coffee shop Oct. 13: "That Bobby (Knight) had shot somebody." Carow said by Oct. 15 he had learned Mikunda, an insurance agent, was the victim but by then Mikunda was on a hunting trip to South Dakota. Carow said he interviewed Mikunda Wednesday, getting the needed confirmation that Knight had fired the shot that hit him. Carow said he talked to Knight Thursday. Knight told investigators he didn't know he had to report the shooting, Carow said. "He felt as long as Mikunda was going to the clinic, things would be taken care of there," Carow said. "I don't believe anybody tried to cover it up. Everybody was completely honest and truthful." Knight "made a mistake and that is something we all do. I don't think he is very happy with himself," Carow said. The DNR gave details of the incident Thursday after a Milwaukee radio station first reported Knight was involved in the hunting accident. It is rare that investigations into hunting accidents are launched because of community rumors, said Dave Zeug, law enforcement director for the DNR's northern region in Spooner. But with a celebrity in small-town, rural northern Wisconsin, the rumor "was all over town basically," Zeug said. "Most hunters are aware of the requirements if you are involved in an accident. If they are not, the medical community is aware of their obligations," Zeug said. "The majority of the time, we are notified. The system works."
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