MENAN—Bernadine Nel expected Monday’s trip to the Menan Buttes to be another normal hiking adventure.
What happened instead brought back memories of violence and terror for the Rexburg woman.
Nel was walking in the desert flatlands out near the North Menan Butte on the morning of Monday, Oct. 2.
“I climb (the butte) about once a month,” she said, “but when I feel like flat land hiking, I go across the road to another lot and hike there.”
Nel said she was hiking while on her phone with her son, Jacob, when the sound of bullets “whistling” through the air near her caught her attention.
“About 4 or 5 shots went zinging by,” she said. “My first thought was that hunters had mistaken me for a deer. I honestly thought they were going to hit me because the sounds were so close. It didn’t help that I’d heard about Las Vegas a couple of hours before.”
Nel immediately dropped to the ground.
“My instinct was to run,” she said. “But when another couple of shots whizzed by I laid down very quickly. My son was still on the phone and I was screaming, ‘Stop shooting! I’m here! There is somebody here!’ I kept yelling at them to stop.”
Nel, who is originally from Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), grew up in a part of the world plagued with violence. She and her family fled the country to South Africa when she was young. She said those experiences were relived while being shot at Monday morning.
“In South Africa and Rhodesia, being shot was a reality and all that ran through my head,” Nel said. “I went through a huge range of emotions, and wondered if a falling bullet would get me. I began to cry when Jacob told me he was on his way.”
Nel’s son ended up driving out to where his mother had talked to him on the phone. By that time, the shooting had stopped. The ordeal had lasted roughly 20 minutes.
“I was shaking,” she said, adding that she feels nervous about hiking in the flatlands again.
Though the experience shook her, she said she understands that the people shooting towards her meant no harm.
“I’m totally not against weapons,” she said. “If anything I’m an advocate, because in my past our weapons kept us safe. But I do think that sometimes people around here believe they have gun ‘right of way.’”
Scott Davis, a Rexburg resident who is also a National Rifle Association certified range safety officer, said that Nel’s experience shows that gun owners who shoot by the buttes need to remember that they might not be the only ones enjoying the outdoors.
“It sounds like they were not aware of their target,” he said. “They might have not been shooting into a berm or they were shooting over a berm. When you go shooting, you have to realize you’re sharing the land you’re shooting on. It’s a fun sport, but it comes with a ton of responsibility.”
Davis reminded those who go shooting to use proper safety precautions to ensure no one gets hurt.
“There are four universal safety rules when it comes to firearm handling,” he said. “Keep your gun off the trigger until you’re ready to shoot, don’t point your gun at anything you don’t want to destroy, be sure of your target and what’s beyond it and treat every gun as though it’s loaded.
“You have to realize you’re using a machine. You need to know how the machine works, as well as its capabilities and limitations, to safely operate it.”
Nel said for the time being, she won’t go hiking in that area again.
“Every time I think about it I feel a bit afraid, but I’ll get back out there,” she said. “Maybe take a friend.”
