Carson Ryan, 17, died last Saturday after being mistaken for a squirrel on a hunting trip. He was shot in the back of the head by someone in his own hunting party who thought his head was a squirrel.
The Iowa Department of Natural Resources, which is now investigating the incident alongside the Washington County Sheriff’s Office, confirmed the details in a press release that reads like absurdist satire on American gun culture: the group was squirrel hunting when, at around 3 PM, a party member mistook a 6-foot-tall high schooler for a small tree rodent and fired.
He was rushed to the University of Iowa Health Care Medical Center, but it was already too late.
In the wake of the shooting, the community did what communities do when there’s nothing else to do—they mourned. Washington High School’s boys track and field team posted a tribute to Carson, who was one of their own, calling the loss “devastating.” Neighboring Pekin Schools urged students to wear Carson’s team colors, orange and black, as a show of solidarity.
A GoFundMe campaign for Carson’s family has already pulled in over $50,000. Its organizers described Carson as “a son, friend, and bright light to everyone who had the privilege of knowing him.”
“His kindness, humor, and genuine spirit touched countless lives, and his loss leaves an immeasurable void,” they continued.
While I understand on some conceptual level that hunting is a cherished part of some people’s cultures, whether they do it for sustenance or for fun, it just feels odd that people are firing even a single bullet at a squirrel for sustenance or fun in the United States in the year 2025. No person should die because their friend mistook them for a squirrel.
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