Kind America has cruel edge for hitchhiker

A MAN who is hitchhiking across the United States and writing a memoir called The Kindness of America has been hurt in a random, drive-by shooting.

Raymond Dolin was sitting by rural highway in Montana waiting for a lift on Saturday evening when a man drove up, rolled down his window, shot him in the arm and drove off, Valley County sheriff Glen Meier said.

Mr Dolin had approached the truck thinking the driver was offering him a ride.

The suspected shooter, 52-year-old Charles Lloyd Danielson III, was arrested about four hours later. Authorities said he was under the influence of drugs or alcohol.