Investigation Continues In Case Of Teen Killed While Deer Hunting

An investigation is still ongoing into a tragic incident where a Glynn County teenager was shot and killed by a hunting companion who mistook him for a deer.

Bobby Lane, 17, had gone deer hunting in woods off Myers Hill Road in Brunswick when he was shot by another hunter who had gone to the property with Lane.

The shooting occurred on Saturday, Sept. 28. Archery deer season had been open for two weeks, but firearms season in Georgia didn’t open until Oct. 19.

The shooter was 32-year-old Hector Romero-Hernandez. He was arrested Oct. 7 and is being held at the Glynn County Detention Center.

DNR Law Enforcement Division Cpl. Mike Wilcox spoke with GON as he was driving back to Brunswick for more work on the case. He said the case is still being investigated, and that more charges are pending.

“He’s in jail and denied bond,” Cpl. Wilcox said regarding Romero-Hernandez.

Ron Corbitt, of the Glynn County Sheriff’s Department, confirmed that a judge ordered Romero-Hernandez held without opportunity for release on bail based on the charge of misuse of a firearm while hunting.

DNR’s Cpl. Wilcox said Romero-Hernandez has also been charged with hunting with an illegal weapon, hunting without a hunting license and hunting big game without a big game license.

Cpl. Wilcox is part of the DNR Law Enforcement Division’s Critical Incident Response Team (CIRT).

CIRT investigates all fatal and serious injury hunting and boating incidents in Georgia, and they also investigate any high profile incidents on state-owned properties. Each CIRT investigator receives specialized training on investigating and presenting these cases, and precise accident reconstruction is a large part of their investigative process.

Cpl. Wilcox said that since DNR is still investigating, there are details of the case that cannot be released to the public yet, including the distance of Romero-Hernandez from the victim when the shot was fired.

Cpl. Wilcox was able to release basic details on the incident.

He said there were four people total in the hunting group.

A neighbor of Lane was in a stand with his 6-year-old son when the incident occurred.

“Three guys went out hunting, and the shooter didn’t identify his target before he pulled the trigger,” Cpl. Wilcox said.

“The shooter was in a stand. The victim was not in a stand. He had a stand with him, but he was on the ground.”

Cpl. Wilcox said the hunters did not have permission to be on the property.

“They went to that land to hunt illegally. I think they had been hunting it for some time, but they did not have permission,” he said.

The third hunter who was in a stand with his 6-year-old son was hunting with a crossbow.

“The witness’s 6-year-old son had a .22 rifle. The witness was 28 years old and hunting with a crossbow and was in a stand. The witness was the neighbor of the victim,” Cpl. Wilcox said.

Both the victim and the shooter had deer rifles, according to Cpl. Wilcox.

After the shooting, police said Romero-Hernandez helped take Lane to an ambulance that was waiting at Friendly Express at the intersection of Highway 82 and Highway 303, just west of I-95 at exit 6.

“The time span from the time they had gotten there and the time it occurred was less than an  hour,” Cpl. Wilcox said.

The victim was not wearing any hunter orange at all.