An 11-year-old boy from Berlin, Wisconsin, died after being struck by a stray bullet during a hunting party on Sunday, November 20, 2022. Easton Thom, White, was hit in the chest when a firearm discharged while a 41-year-old member of the same hunting group was attempting to unload the weapon in the back seat of a vehicle. Easton was airlifted by Med Flight to a nearby hospital but died of his injuries.

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources opened an investigation. Reports from the time identify the shooter only as a 41-year-old male in the hunting party; his name was not released in the immediate aftermath, and available reports do not indicate any arrest or charges. The incident was among several hunting-related shootings reported during that year’s opening weekend of deer season in Wisconsin.

If anyone in the Berlin or Green Lake County area has information about that hunting party or the circumstances of the firearm handling that morning, please share what is known.