Delaware State Police say 39-year-old Santos Maria Chilel Soto of Georgetown died after being shot in a field in Ellendale. Investigators has charged Walter Moorhead, 74, of Salisbury, Maryland, with manslaughter, firearm, and reckless-endangerment offenses.
The shooting was reported around 7:40 p.m. Friday, Sept. 18, in field near Old State and Robbins roads. State police officers responded to the field and provided first aid. Paramedics transported Chilel Soto to a hospital, where doctors pronounced her dead.
According to investigators, Moorhead had been deer hunting from a ground blind and fired at what he thought was a deer. Troopers at the scene identified him as the shooter and took him into custody.
In police accounts of the incident, Moorhead went to check his shot and discovered a wounded woman in the field. Court records summarized by CoastTV News state he told troopers the injury came from his rifle. Delaware State Police homicide detectives are investigating.
Moorhead faces charges of manslaughter, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, and three counts of first-degree reckless endangering. Troopers brought him to Troop 4 for processing, a Justice of the Peace Court judge arraigned him, and he left custody after posting $43,000 cash bond. He is presumed innocent until proven guilty.
On that evening, Chilel Soto was walking with her boyfriend Minibaldo Velásquez and his two children, ages 7 and 10. In an interview with CoastTV News in Spanish, Velásquez recalled:
“We were walking, and about five minutes later, we heard a sound that sounded like an explosion. Then she covered her ears and collapsed.”
Velásquez added he was initially confused about what had happened and questioned whether it was an accident, adding, “he shot her exactly in the stomach.”
Her daughter Sharon López arrived later at the scene. In her account to CoastTV News, López said:
“When I got there, the man was on the ground. It looked like he was sad about what happened. I don’t know if it was on purpose or anything, but I mean, it doesn’t seem right how he already got out.”
The state of Delaware has recorded relatively few hunting-related shooting accidents in recent decades.
The Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control documented 10 such accidents since the 2001–02 season, including eight in which one hunter shot another. One of the accidents was fatal, and none involved a non-hunter being shot.
DNREC says it has issued hunter-safety cards to more than 35,000 hunters since 1967, and that accidents have declined substantially.
Velásquez told CoastTV News he will never find another woman like Chilel Soto, calling her special and saying her children and everyone who knew her recognized how hardworking and charismatic she was, how she liked to help people, and how she served God.
“My mother was my best friend and it isn’t fair she was taken away from me and my four other siblings,” López expressed her emotions in a statement to CoastTV News.
