A snorkeller underwent eight hours of surgery after being shot in the head, apparently in mistake for a rodent. John Cheesman, 44, was snorkelling near Reedsport, south-west of Eugene, Oregon, when shot by William Roderick, 60, who has been charged with assault, being a felon armed with a firearm, and possession of methamphetamine and marijuana. He said he thought Mr Cheesman was a coypu, similar to a large rat. Shelley Cheesman, his wife, said: "The bullet hit in front of his right ear, where the bone is the most dense ... and didn't go into his brain."