James “Bo” Gritz, a former Green Beret colonel and right-wing leader of the so-called Patriot Movement, was hospitalized in Idaho with a gunshot wound. No one but Gritz was believed to be involved in the Sunday afternoon shooting. Hunting season is under way.
Clearwater County Sheriff Nick Albers said the wound was not believed to be life-threatening. At Clearwater Valley Hospital in Orofino, a spokeswoman would not give a condition for Gritz or even confirm he was a patient.
Sheriff’s deputies were called to a scene about 5 p.m. a half-mile south of Orofino, which is 80 miles west of Missoula, Mont.
Gritz, 59, is probably best known for his role as negotiator in the FBI siege on the Randy Weaver family in Ruby Ridge in 1992. He also briefly was a mediator in the Montana Freemen standoff in 1996.
Recently, he headed a team into the North Carolina forests, hoping to persuade suspected abortion clinic bomber Eric Rudolph to give himself up. Rudolph did not.
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A controversial ex-Green Beret who helped negotiate the end of the 1992 siege in Ruby Ridge, Idaho, told a Senate panel Wednesday he believes Randy Weaver was wounded and his wife Vicki deliberately killed with different caliber weapons. Retired Army Col. James ‘Bo’ Gritz said he believes one FBI sniper wounded Randy Weaver in an attempt to draw out Vicki Weaver from her cabin at Ruby Ridge so she could be shot by another sniper. ‘They were hoping that Randall would go down, and Vicki would come out and give (FBI sniper) Lon Horiuchi a better shot,’ Gritz testified. Gritz said he examined Weaver’s wound and Vicki’s body in the Weaver cabin during the course of the negotiations.
