[chris]

An off-duty Massachusetts state trooper shot and gravely wounded a 66-year-old woman who was walking her two dogs on New Year's Eve 2011, after mistaking the animals for a deer on wooded land in Norton, according to State Police and news accounts.

The woman, Cheryl Blair of Norton, was struck shortly before 5 p.m. on Dec. 31, 2011, as she walked a path roughly a quarter mile into the woods off Oak Street, police said. A .50-caliber lead ball fired from a black powder rifle hit her in the lower abdomen and shattered her hip.

The hunter, John Bergeron, an experienced marksman who lived nearby and held a valid permit, was hunting during the state's deer season, State Police said. Investigators said Bergeron did not see Blair and took the tails of her two dogs for the tail of a deer.

Bergeron called 911 himself and stayed with Blair, giving first aid until rescuers arrived. On the recording, later released to the public, he is heard on the line with a dispatcher as he tries to keep her conscious and to steer emergency crews to the spot deep in the woods. News coverage of the call reported that Bergeron could be heard asking why Blair was not wearing blaze orange, the safety color required of hunters.

Blair spent about two months in the hospital and underwent roughly 10 operations, including repeated surgeries to fight infection, before returning home in late February 2012, according to news reports.

State Police concluded the shooting was accidental. State environmental police sought a charge of careless or negligent use of a firearm causing injury, but a clerk magistrate declined to issue the complaint, and Bergeron faced no criminal charges, according to news accounts. In June 2012, Blair filed a civil lawsuit against Bergeron and the owner of the wooded property, seeking damages and payment of her medical bills.