A Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Montana is facing questions about his claim that he was wounded in the arm by a bullet during a firefight in Afghanistan where he was deployed as a Navy SEAL in 2012, according to a report.
Tim Sheehy, who is challenging incumbent Democrat Sen. Jon Tester, a race that could potentially flip the chamber to Republican control, has talked about the bullet wound on the campaign trail and in a book, the New York Times reported.
But two people, including a fellow SEAL who served with Sheehy in Afghanistan, have disputed his account.
The questions began to surface earlier this year when Sheehy told police that he had accidentally shot himself in the arm at Montana’s Glacier National Park.
The shooting incident happened in 2025, three years after his military deployment.
Kim Peach, a park ranger, who talked to Sheehy the day of the shooting, said Sheehy told him that he accidentally shot himself in the arm.
Peach said Sheehy turned over the pistol with one spent round to him.
“I am 100 percent sure he shot himself that day,” Peach told the Times.
Dave Madden, the SEAL colleague, said he had a close relationship with Sheehy before they deployed to Afghanistan.
He said Sheehy never mentioned a gunshot wound to him and thought it odd that he wouldn’t do so during their deployment if he had been shot.
“It seems obvious to me and every other operator I’ve talked to about this,” Madden told the Times, referring to other military members.
Sheehy and his lawyers are adamant that he was shot in Afghanistan, and they say suggesting saying otherwise is “tantamount to falsely accusing him or stolen valor.”
They also dispute the accounts of Madden and Peach.
Sheehy, the lawyers said, did not initially report the wound because he thought it may have come from friendly fire and didn’t want to cause problems for his fellow SEALs.
After he hurt his arm during the hike in Glacier National Park and went to a hospital for help, he sought to further protect his comrades by lying to the staff even though he was no longer on active duty.
When hospital staff told Sheehy they would have to report the bullet in his arm to police, he claimed to them and Peach that it was caused by an accidental shooting earlier that day.
“Mr. Sheehy’s account is the only plausible one,” his lawyers said.
