Bucks teen shot at park dies; DA asks hunter to come forward
Jason Kutt’s girlfriend says she saw a man wearing orange vest look, then walk away
It was a perfect autumn evening with crisp temperatures and clear skies an ideal night to watch a sunset over picturesque Lake Nockamixon in Upper Bucks County.
That’s what 18-year-old Jason Kutt and his girlfriend were doing at Nockamixon State Park in Bedminster Township around 5 p.m. Saturday, when a single gunshot rang out. Kutt, a 2020 Pennridge High School graduate, fell backward and onto the ground.
Kutt’s girlfriend looked in the direction of where the sound of the shot came from, Bucks County District Attorney Matt Weintraub said at a news conference in Doylestown Monday.
“She observed a male dressed in an orange vest, which she described as hunting clothing, standing behind the yellow gate on Old Ridge Road, looking in their direction.”
The man in the hunting gear was approximately 550 feet away, Weintraub said. He walked back down the secluded road, and he did not appear to be in a hurry. Despite a thorough police search of the area, including a K-9 and a state police helicopter, they found no one fitting that description.
Weintraub noted that there’s no proof at this time that the hunter Kutt’s girlfriend saw fired the fatal shot. But he urged the man to reveal himself to help the investigation.
“If you are responsible, if you have an explanation, you have a version of events that you would like us to consider, please come forward. Jason Kutt and his family deserve it,” Weintraub said.
Kutt, of West Rockhill Township, suffered a single gunshot wound to the neck and died early Monday at St. Luke’s Hospital-Bethlehem. A bullet was recovered from Kutt’s body, but Weintraub declined to say what kind of gun it may have come from.
The district attorney asked that anyone who was at the park around the time of the shooting, or has video or trail camera footage that might be relative, contact his office. He said investigators have already received numerous tips, but need more.
“We don’t have any suspects. We don’t even know if a crime has been committed yet,” Weintraub said.
Hunting is permitted in the park, which borders state game lands in Bedminster and Haycock townships. Deer can be hunted with muzzleloaders, and rifles can be used to shoot deer and small game.
Kutt, at 6-foot, 3-inches tall, would have been hard to mistake for a deer, Weintraub said. He was wearing a black hat with orange trim, and a dark-colored shirt. His girlfriend was wearing a black shirt.
Though a graduation photo displayed at the press conference showed Kutt with bright red hair, rangers at the event said it was no longer that color on Saturday.
Weintraub stopped short of calling Kutt’s killing a homicide, saying he wants to avoid prejudging what was in the shooter’s mind.
“Things can happen on purpose, they can happen knowingly and recklessly, they can happen through gross negligence or purely by accident. We have no way of knowing, other than making educated guesses at this point, and that’s not sufficient. Jason Kutt is entitled to more than that,” he said.
County detectives, state and township police are investigating the shooting.
In a Facebook post Monday, Kutt’s family wrote that he “loved playing his guitars, video games, and taking walks in nature to take amazing pictures and spending time with his girlfriend.”
Authorities are not releasing the girlfriend’s name at this time.
Weintraub praised Kutt’s family for donating the teen’s organs, saying he wanted to make it clear that organ donation should always be considered, even when there’s an ongoing police investigation.
“I want to make sure someone who has the ability to prolong other people’s lives, has that chance,” he said.
The area when Kutt was shot is not far from the Richland Township site of another fatal
shooting involving a hunter. In November 2010, 52-year-old Barry Groh was shot to death while hunting deer in a wooded area. David Manilla, a Montgomery County attorney who owned the land where Groh was hunt
ing, pleaded no contest to involuntary manslaughter in 2011 and was sentenced to 10 to 25 years in a state prison.
Anyone with any information about Kutt’s death is asked to contact the Bucks County detec
tives at 215-348-6868 or 215-3408140.