Hitchhiker writing 'The Kindness of America' is shot in Montana
By Matt Pearce
June 11, 2012, 2:53 p.m.
The first rule of adventurous traveling: Things are almost never as bad as your mother thinks.
The second rule of adventurous traveling: The "almost never" exceptions can be pretty bad.
Further, if you’re writing a book called “The Kindness of America,” as hitchhiker Ray Dolin is, you might be tempting fate. Dolin learned this when a stranger shot him Saturday evening in rural Montana where Dolin was trying to hitch a ride.
Dolin, a 39-year-old from West Virginia, had been traveling across America to work on his book, a memoir, and was on a highway near the Bakken oil patch, authorities told the Associated Press.
"He was sitting down to have a little lunch, and this guy drives up,” Valley County Sheriff Glen Meier told the AP. “He thought he was going to give him a ride and as he approached the vehicle, the guy pulls out his weapon and shoots him. It's as simple as that.”
Dolin, 39, will live; he got hit in the arm and was being treated at Frances Mahon Deaconess Hospital in Glasgow, Mont.
Meanwhile, police told the AP, they tracked down a suspect about four hours later in Culbertson, Mont., and identified him as Lloyd Christopher Danielson III of Washington. He was arrested on suspicion of felony assault with a weapon and driving under the influence. Officials said he had a criminal record in Washington involving intimidation and assault.
"He [Ray Dolin] was on the way across the country taking pictures," his father, Melvin Dolin, told the Billings Gazette. He had left home in Julian, W.Va., last week and taken the bus to Montana and planned to find his way to Washington from there, his father told the Billings Gazette. "He was going to make up his mind as he travelled along. But he didn't get that far."
Ray Dolin wasn’t available for comment, so there’s no word on how getting shot will affect his book project.
