By Laura Zuckerman
March 9 (Reuters) – Producers of a popular cable program
about hunting and guns said on Saturday they were saddened by
the “sudden untimely death” of the show’s host, Gregory
Rodriguez, who police said was shot to death in Montana by a man
who later apparently killed himself.
Authorities in the resort town of Whitefish in northwestern
Montana said Rodriguez, 43, host of “A Rifleman’s Journal” on
the Sportsman Channel and contributing editor at Guns & Ammo
magazine, was killed by the husband of a woman with whom
Rodriguez was meeting on Thursday night.
The unidentified woman told police that her husband, Wayne
Bengston, entered the house where she and Rodriguez were
visiting and shot and killed him before brutally beating her,
Whitefish Police Chief Bill Dial said in a statement.
Bengston, 41, fled to a relative’s house with the couple’s
2-year-old son, who was later found unharmed. Authorities
tracked Bengston to the couple’s home in nearby West Glacier,
where he was found dead early on Friday of what appeared to be a
self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, Dial said.
At a news conference on Friday, Dial said he did not believe
Rodriguez was involved with Bengston’s wife but that Bengston
may have acted in a jealous rage.
The producers of Rodriguez’s show said they were saddened by
his “sudden untimely death.”
“He truly epitomized Sportsman Channel’s position of being a
leader in the outdoors,” Sportsman Channel spokeswoman Michelle
Scheuermann said in a statement.
Rodriguez of Sugar Land, Texas, was an authority on firearms
and hunting and owned an outfitting business that booked hunting
trips to Africa.
He was a former vice president of the Houston Safari Club, a
nonprofit group that advocates for wildlife conservation and
sporting rights.
“A Rifleman’s Journal” chronicled Rodriguez’s global
pursuit of big-game animals in Africa, Asia and Europe,
according to the Sportsman Channel.
Rodriguez and his wife had two children, said the website of
his Global Adventure Outfitters business.
(Reporting by Laura Zuckerman in Salmon, Idaho; Editing by Alex
Dobuzinskis and Peter Cooney)
