Hunter "doing good" despite being shot in the chest last Saturday.
By: Leon Tovey
MONROE A North Brunswick man shot in a hunting accident in the southern part of town last weekend is recovering at home after being released from Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick on Wednesday.
William Hadzimichalis, 24, was "doing good," his mother, Marianne Hadzimichalis, said Wednesday afternoon.
"He’s going to be our Christmas miracle," Ms. Hadzimichalis said. "We’re all taking it just one day at a time and it’s been a rough couple of days on us, but I’m just thankful he’s here."
Ms. Hadzimichalis said her son was taken to the hospital Saturday after being shot in the chest by a fellow member of the Old Yorke Gun Club just before 11 a.m. Saturday.
Detective Sgt. Lawrence Linke of the township police said members of the group were hunting deer with shotguns in a privately owned, wooded area along Longstreet Road, about two miles south of Concordia, when the incident occurred.
Police did not release the name of the person who shot Mr. Hadzimichalis. Sgt. Linke said no charges have been filed against that person.
A spokesperson for the state Department of Environmental Protection, which oversees the Division of Fish and Wildlife, said the shooting was reported as an accident and that an investigation is ongoing.
Ms. Hadzmichalis said she didn’t know how the shooting occurred. She said her son has been hunting with his father since he was 10 years old and that he was wearing orange safety clothing when he and the other members of the group, his father among them, went hunting Saturday.
"He had just bought brand-new hunting clothes I remember going shopping that morning and seeing the tags on the table," she said. "I don’t know what went wrong."
The incident occurred at the end of buck week, the six-day statewide season for taking up to two antlered deer with shotguns without a permit.
A 13-day permit muzzle-loading season is set to begin Saturday and end Dec. 31 (deer hunting is not permitted on Sundays) and additional permit muzzle-loader and permit shotgun seasons are scheduled to begin in January. For more information, go towww.state.nj.us/dep/fgw.

