Tim Sheehy, the former Navy SEAL and Purple Heart recipient running as the Republican candidate against incumbent Montana Sen. Jon Tester, has long told voters that a gun wound in his right forearm occurred when he was serving in Afghanistan.
However, following a Washington Post report in April alleging that the wound was accidentally self-inflicted, a New York Times investigation Friday has made the story appear even more dubious.
Earlier this year, the Post reported that in October 2015—three years after Sheehy‘s deployment had ended—he told police that he had mistakenly shot himself in the arm after a hike at Montana‘s Glacier National Park—and that that was the reason for the bullet in his arm.
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A park ranger who talked with Sheehy in the hospital in 2015 told the Times on the record that Sheehy told him he had accidentally shot himself.
“I am 100 percent sure he shot himself that day,” Kim Peach told the paper. Peach, who affirmed his incident report, also said he temporarily confiscated and unloaded Sheehy’s revolver, finding five live rounds and one casing.
Sheehy and his lawyers have since argued he lied to Peach in order to protect his former platoon mates, claiming the bullet in his arm may have been a result of friendly fire. They say Sheehy actually slipped and fell while hiking, aggravating the pre-existing wound.
“Mr. Sheehy‘s account is the only plausible one,” the Trump-endorsed candidate’s lawyers claimed.
Peach, speaking to the Post, had condemned Sheehy for how he criticized those questioning what happened in Afghanistan.
“He said that questioning his military service was ‘disgusting,’” Peach said. “What is disgusting is saying a wound from a negligent, accidental firearm discharge is a wound received in combat.”
Another new account that runs contrary to Sheehy’s comes from Dave Madden, a former SEAL colleague.
Madden told the Times that Sheehy had never mentioned a gunshot wound to him, adding that it would have very likely come up during their time together overseas—or in conversations when the two reconnected months later and shared war stories, he said.
Madden explained that he has come forward publicly because believes Sheehy is making up the tale.
“It seems obvious to me and every other operator I’ve talked to about this,” he told the Times.
Madden said that he didn‘t understand why Sheehy would have been trying to hide a friendly fire wound—such a ricochet injury is considered a typical battle hazard, he said, adding that he believed no one would have investigated the source of the bullet.
Two other former SEALS who spoke with the Times said they had heard about Sheehy being injured in Afghanistan, but didn‘t recall anything about a gunshot wound specifically. One of them, Justin Sheehan, recalled discussing Sheehy’s injuries as from an improvised explosive device (IED).
Another said he remembered Sheehy talking about an IED blast and having been struck by friendly fire.
Sheehy‘s lawyers accused Madden, a registered Democrat, of acting out of a political desire to harm Sheehy’s standing in his Senate race. Sheehy currently leads Tester by 8 percentage points, according to the latest New York Times/Siena College poll.
