Republican Changing Story About Getting Shot Raises Eyebrows

Tim Sheehy, a Montana Republican U.S. Senate candidate, changing his story about being shot has raised eyebrows across social media on Sunday.

Sheehy, a first-time candidate, is a former Navy SEAL who received former President Donald Trump‘s endorsement back in February as he vies for Democratic Senator Jon Tester’s seat. Since launching his campaign, Sheehy has widely shared a story about him being shot while deployed, but there have been inconsistent accounts of the story he has told, according to The Washington Post.

In a campaign video in December, Sheehy cited a gunshot wound he received in combat that he said left a bullet in his right arm as evidence of his toughness. “I got thick skin — though it’s not thick enough. I have a bullet stuck in this arm still from Afghanistan,” he said.

However, according to a record filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Montana, after a family visit to Montana’s Glacier National Park, Sheehy told a National Park Service ranger in October 2015, more than a year after he left active duty, that he accidentally shot himself in the right arm that day when his Colt .45 revolver fell and discharged while he was loading his vehicle in the park.

According to a citation given to the Senate hopeful for illegally discharging his weapon in a national park, the self-inflicted gunshot left a bullet lodged in Sheehy’s right forearm. The citation said the description was based on Sheehy’s account of events.

However, when recently asked about the citation, which has not been previously reported on, Sheehy told The Washington Post on Sunday that the statement he gave the ranger in 2015 was a lie.

Sheehy told the newspaper that he made up the story about the gun going off to protect himself and his former platoonmates from facing a potential military investigation into an old bullet wound that he said he got in Afghanistan in 2012, adding that he was not sure whether the wound was the result of friendly fire or from enemy ammunition and as a result he never reported the incident to his superiors.

Sheehy clarified that the telling of events to the ranger was not due to a self-inflicted gunshot wound, but when he fell and hurt himself on a hike, resulting in a trip to the hospital where he told hospital staff he had a bullet in his arm—prompting the interview with the ranger.