Enforcement captain says officer acted in self defense
N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission officials said that a veteran wildlife enforcement officer acted in self-defense when he shot and killed a hunter during a confrontation on Saturday, April 11.
Mark Minton, a wildlife enforcement officer, was patrolling in the Cane Creek Church Road area of the McGrady community in northwest Wilkes County on the opening day of the spring wild-turkey season when the confrontation with Clyde Coffey, a 77-year-old resident of Lenoir, occurred.
Capt. Rusty Hunter said that Minton, who has been with the Commission for 12 years, shot and killed Coffey in self defense. Minton is on administrative leave while the State Bureau of Investigation reviews the incident.
“It appears from all the information we’ve gathered that the officer was protecting himself,” Hunter said.
Newspaper reports indicated that Minton was investigating a report of people hunting around a field that had been illegally baited for turkeys.
Wilkes County officials said that Coffey died at the scene of a gunshot wound to the chest. Wilkes County deputies were dispatched to the scene at 7:35 a.m. The shooting took place on a wooded area above a home owned by the Coffey family.
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