On February 18, 2017, thirteen-year-old William Billy G. Gort Jr. of Wyoming, Michigan, was fatally wounded during a squirrel-hunting outing in Greenwood Township run by a youth program called Christianity Outdoors. He was accompanied by a friend and by 62-year-old mentor and certified hunter safety instructor Roger Erick Hoeker. A single shot from Hoeker’s .22-caliber rifle struck Billy in the back of the head. Both boys were wearing orange hunter safety gear.

Hoeker initially said the bullet had ricocheted off a tree, but Michigan State Police investigators found no evidence to support that account. Hoeker was arrested and charged in August 2017 with involuntary manslaughter. Billy’s family filed a wrongful death suit against Hoeker and Christianity Outdoors that settled for $1 million. The criminal charge was later reduced to careless, reckless, or negligent discharge of a firearm causing death; a June 2018 trial ended in a mistrial after an undisclosed deputy’s report came to light. To avoid a second trial, Hoeker entered a no-contest plea and in September 2018 received a 90-day jail term and one year of probation. The courtroom heard emotional victim impact statements from Billy’s father and grandfather.

Anyone who knew Billy, attended the outreach program, or has information about the shooting is asked to come forward.