AURORA— A city councilman from Virginia accidentally shot and injured a top city official while the two were hunting together near their northern Minnesota city.

The Mesabi Daily News reports that Virginia Councilman Charles Baribeau (bare-uh-BOW’) and city operations director John Tourville were grouse hunting on Saturday about 20 miles south of the town of Aurora when a bird flew up and Baribeau fired one round. Tourville was struck by about eight pellets in his face, neck, chest, arm and hand.

The paper reports the two men were separated by thick cover at the time and didn’t see each other.

The St. Louis County Sheriff’s office says the 64-year-old Baribeau transported the 56-year-old Tourville to Fairview University Medical Center-Mesabi in Hibbing where he was treated for non-life threatening injuries.