Gun Fail

Sun Sep 29, 2013 at 04:29 PM PDT

GunFAIL XXXVII

by David Waldman

Nine of 33 guns discovered by TSA agents at airports across the country this week.

 

Strange week this time around. Not atypical in terms of volume or even the kinds of accidents we saw. But odd in small ways. Topping the stats this week: six "home invasion" shootings, four hunting accidents, three gun cleaning accidents, three cops and/or security guards involved in accidents, and three accidents while target shooting. In a somewhat more unusual count, this week saw three men allegedly shoot their wives by accident. How's that for "protecting the family" with your guns?

 Another thing that was a little strange about this week's compilation was that it included an unusual number of accidents in the upper Mid-West and mountain West, specifically six in total between Montana, North Dakota and Wyoming. There were three in Montana alone, including two in Fargo. In fact, a report of an accident in Fargo on Sept. 13 noted that there had been six accidental discharges in the city in the past month, a fact that came up again, but already out of date, when it was cited in the coverage of yet another accident there 10 days later.

Missouri was the source of two of the more unusual stories this week. First, the injury to an historic re-enactor who accidentally wounded himself with a gun loaded with blanks during an "Outlaw Days" bank robbery recreation. (And by the way, why is it that reenacting bank robberies by white guys isn't an inappropriate "celebration" of "thug culture"?) Second, and it's been a while since we've seen one of these, the loss of a loaded pistol in a public restroom. This time, it was an aide to the Missouri legislature's speaker of the House, who left his concealed carry weapon (loaded and with a round chambered) on top of the toilet paper dispenser in a capitol men's room. Responsible Gun Owner^TM that he is, he made an office secretary make the embarrassing call to the police to report the loss. New rule: If you forget your concealed carry weapon in the can, you have to make the call to the cops yourself.

It's also been an interesting week in GunFAIL news in terms of media coverage of the subject. The New York Times, for instance, published a very interesting take on the child victims of gun accidents (who this week were ages 3, 11, 13, 14, 15, 17 and 17) in Children and Guns: The Hidden Toll. Between that and the Times' Gun Report blog series, plus several other pieces with a similar focus, it seems clear that the national media is taking an interest in gun accidents, and I have to believe the GunFAIL series and Twitter hashtag is helping to drive it. The word is getting out locally, too, as with the comments of the Fargo police department, as well as reports like this one, from New Haven, CT, and this one from Columbia, SC. I'd say they're catching on to this subject out there. And the NYT, in particular, is digging in with just the kind of inquiry I'd hoped someone with the necessary resources would undertake, to find out whether the accident rate really isn't higher than the official statistics say they are. And really, even the official stats say they're plenty high.

One thing unfortunately not out of keeping with routine is the seven guns discovered in schools this week, in Chicago, IL; Louisville, KY; Fayetteville, AR; Orlando, FL; Salem, OR; St. Anthony, ID; and Camp Verde, AZ.

And with that, I'll leave you to peruse this week's compilation, below the fold.

1. WILMINGTON, DE, 9/06/13: An investigation into a shooting in Wilmington earlier this month has revealed that the alleged victim shot himself in the leg, police said. Detectives are asking the public’s help in locating 21-year-old Michael Wayne Lovett Jr. for filing a false police report, said Cpl. Jamaine Crawford. Lovett originally reported he was in the area of Eighth and North Adams streets about 10:30 p.m. Sept. 6 when he heard three or four gunshots and realized he had been shot in the leg. Further investigation determined that Lovett’s gunshot wound was self-inflicted, police said.
2. LIBBY, MT, 9/08/13: The Lincoln County Sheriff’s Department is reviewing its protocol for discharging a weapon, specifically for euthanizing an injured animal, after one of three shots fired by a deputy pierced a metal door and entered a home in Libby. Lincoln County Deputy Gordon Jessop was called to the area of Education Way and Ski Road after 10 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 8, to euthanize a deer. According to several accounts, Jessop fired three shots, one of which struck an object on the ground, ricocheted up and pierced the rear door of the home at 16 Ski Road. Residents of that home, David and Carol Latham, had just settled down for the evening to watch the Canadian Country Music Awards. Moments before, Carol Latham retrieved clothes from the dryer and took them back to the living room to fold them as they watched television. “I was just there, getting laundry out of the dryer,” Carol Latham said, estimating about two minutes before the shots were fired. “It shot the lids off the jugs, and it could have hit me about here,” said Carol, pointing to about mid-calf. Latham added: “The department offered to pay to have the door replaced.”
3. FARGO, ND, 9/13/13: A North Dakota State University police officer is on medical leave, recovering from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Campus Police Spokesman Bill Vandal says the officer was off-duty at the time. He says the gun accidentally discharged at the officer's home. The injury was not serious. It was reported Friday night, Sept. 13. Fargo police say there have been six incidents involving accidental gun discharges in the past month, involving two injuries and one death. UPDATE: Police reports indicate Thomas told investigators he consumed two or three beers the night of the incident and at the time of the shooting was watching an instructional video on his computer having to do with close-quarters shooting with a handgun. According to the report, Thomas told authorities he was doing an exercise that involved dry firing his gun while holding the muzzle against his forearm. Having done that several times, Thomas told police he absent-mindedly inserted an ammunition clip into the gun, which he said went off the next time he attempted to dry fire it against his arm. The police report said the bullet went through Thomas’s arm and the modem of his computer before becoming lodged in one of the walls of his apartment. [Ed. note: Wow! Almost a home invasion shooting, too!]
4. STRUTHERS, OH, 9/17/13: Police say last week’s burglary on West Lewis Street was a ruse, concocted by the homeowner to hide his accidentally shooting himself earlier that day. [Detective Jeff] Lewis added that [suspect Paul] Trimacco confessed to making up the burglary story to explain how he actually shot himself while testing the credibility of his flak jacket, because he didn’t want his girlfriend to know the truth about his injuries. Trimacco said he’d been hit by a ricochet while shooting the jacket, and that he later fired several rounds in his basement—and blamed them on a burglar—to cover up the accident. According to the police report, Trimacco had accidentally shot himself a few months prior to last week’s incident, too. When police arrived at the residence, they found Trimacco—with his face painted, and donning camouflage military fatigues and a helmet—walking around the backyard and carrying a gun. Trimacco then told police that someone had broken into his residence, and that he had been shot a couple of times in an exchange of gunfire, which had occurred in his basement. He explained his apparel by telling police that someone had tried to break into his home the previous day, and that he had a feeling this person might attempt it again. He said that he’d been waiting in his basement with the lights out for four hours before the alleged burglary took place. While taking a break upstairs with his girlfriend, Trimacco said he heard loud noises coming from the basement, then told his girlfriend to hide with his 9-year-old son in the attic. Trimacco told police that shots began to fly once he went back into the basement, and that he remembers returning gunfire. Police also noted that Trimacco confessed to having his dog tags made online, and that he’d never actually been in the Army.
5. KEARNEY, NE, 9/20/13: A Kearney man was listed in good condition today at Good Samaritan Hospital after accidentally being shot in the leg Friday in Kearney. At about 2:35 p.m., a 20-year-old Kearney man arrived at the emergency room of at Good Sam, a Kearney Police Department incident report said. The man had been accidentally shot in the leg with a .22LR rifle by a 43-year-old Kearney man. Police Capt. Mike Kirkwood said the men were getting ready to go target shooting when the incident happened. No citations were issued.
6. JEFFERSON CITY, MO, 9/20/13: A Missouri House staffer allegedly left a loaded gun in a public restroom in the state Capitol last week. According to a Capitol Police incident report, a Kahr CM9 9mm pistol—later claimed by House Speaker Tim Jones’ legislative assistant Dave Evans—was found on top of the toilet paper dispenser in a men's restroom in the Capitol basement Friday. The incident report states that the gun “was fully loaded with one round in the chamber and six rounds in the magazine.” Capitol police returned the gun to Evans after Jones’ secretary Lisa Bondurant called to report that it was misplaced. The incident report states that Evans didn't have paperwork for the gun with him, but he "offered a very detailed description of the weapon and the holster (and) was able to identify the weapon by the brand, caliber, color, size, the holster and the ammunition count and type that was in the weapon." Evans did not immediately respond to a call from the Post-Dispatch on Monday. No charges are expected in the incident. A law passed in 2011 allows Missouri legislators and their staffers to have guns in the Capitol if they have concealed gun permits.
7. RICHMOND, MO, 9/21/13: A performer suffered a leg injury Saturday during an re-enactment of a 1867 bank robbery when a gun accidentally discharged during Outlaw Days in Richmond, MO. The re-enactor was hit in the leg when the gun, loaded with blanks, discharged during the reenactment around noon, said festival chairman Jim Carter.
8. WHITNEY, TX, 9/21/13: A Fort Worth teen who was out hunting feral hogs in Hill County was seriously wounded over the weekend when another teen placed a rifle down on the backseat of a truck and the weapon discharged, authorities said Sunday. The 13-year-old, whom authorities did not immediately identify, was taken by helicopter ambulance to Cook Children’s Medical Center in Fort Worth where he underwent surgery. His condition early Sunday was listed as serious. A friend of the family says the boy is an eighth-grader at Prairie Vistas Middle School in Fort Worth; the school is in the Eagle Mountain-Saginaw school district. The shooting occurred about 9 p.m. Saturday in a rural area a few miles south of Whitney. Whitney is about 70 miles south of Fort Worth. The teen, another young boy and the father of one of the boys were out hunting hogs, Wilson said Sunday. One of the boys laid the rifle on a backseat and the weapon fired just as the victim was walking by the truck, Wilson said.
9. LANDER, WY, 9/21/13: Lander Chief of Police Jim Carey says 25-year-old Courtney Cox Lander died Saturday afternoon when she was apparently shot accidentally by her husband. Carey says the investigation is still going on but it appears the shooting was “an accident, moreover, a tragedy.” The husband, who’s name has not been released, was apparently handling a 45-caliber hand gun when it fired and a bullet went into the woman’s mid section. Cox was rushed to the Lander Hospital where she was pronounced dead.
10. DULUTH, MN, 9/22/13: A Duluth man who unintentionally shot himself with a .22-caliber handgun has been arrested on a charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm and failing to register as a predatory offender. According to the Duluth Police Department, officers responded to a report of a shooting inside a residence Saturday on the 10 block of North 25th Avenue West. The 25-year-old man suffered a single, non-life-threatening gunshot wound in the pelvic area. [Ed. note: I think we all know what that means.]
11. COLUMBUS, OH, 9/22/13: A man was killed on the Far West Side yesterday when he was hit in the chest by a bullet after it passed through the wall of a neighboring apartment. Jonathan Gardner, 28, died after being taken to Mount Carmel West hospital by paramedics. Columbus fire and police were called to 1323 Burnham Dr. at 12:50 p.m. after someone called 911 to say a man had been accidentally shot. Columbus homicide detectives determined that an individual in a nearby apartment unintentionally fired a handgun and the bullet went through a wall, striking Gardner, police said. The person who fired the gun had not been charged yesterday, police said.
12. BROADVIEW HEIGHTS, OH, 9/22/13: Gun Accident, Stonewall Range: Police were called at 5:28 p.m. Sept. 22 after a woman accidentally shot herself in her leg during a basic firearms class. The woman apparently was told to fire two rounds, at which time she drew her weapon from a holster and shot the gun. The woman was transported to the hospital. The gun was kept as evidence by police.
13. HAMBURG, WI, 9/22/13: There was a fatal hunting accident in western Marathon County on Sunday. It happened around 10am in the woods near Hamburg. The DNR and sheriffs deputies responded. The hunter did not survive. It's the second time a hunter has been shot during this year's squirrel season. On Sept. 15 another hunter was shot in the abdomen in Kronenwetter. His was rushed to Wausau Aspirus Hospital and survived his injuries.
14. MOBILE, AL, 9/22/13: An 11-year-old girl is struggling for her life after she was shot in the chest by a bullet shot at a home on Hurtel Street, said a Mobile Police Department spokesman. Around 9:25 p.m., police were called to a reported shooting at a one-story, brick veneer house on Hurtel Street between Dauphin Island Parkway and Michigan Avenue, according to records from the Mobile County Sheriff's Office. When officers arrived, they found an 11-year-old girl with an apparent gunshot wound to her chest, said MPD spokesman Cpl. Christopher Levy. "She was sitting in her bedroom watching TV and the bullet came through her window," Levy said.
15. TEHACHAPI, CA, 9/22/13: 10:38 a.m. Suspicious circumstances at hotel on Steuber Road. Possible bullet hole in the wall; management is on scene. Appears the occupant of the room, who may have been in the area for a shooting competition, may have accidentally discharged a firearm. No evidence of injuries, but case is still under investigation. Disposition: Report taken.
16. GLENDALE, AZ, 9/22/13: Officers responded to a report of a shooting 1:24 a.m. Sept. 22 near 8300 West Myrtle Avenue. Upon arrival, officers located a victim with a single gunshot wound. The suspect was transported to a local hospital with a life-threatening injury. Investigation revealed that the victim was accidentally shot by a friend recklessly handling a gun.
17. FEDERAL DAM, MN, 9/22/13: A 19-year-old hunter was shot by a dog—sort of. The man, who hasn’t been named, was hunting Sunday morning on Leech River near Federal Dam when a hunting dog jumped into the boat and engaged the trigger of a shotgun, causing it to discharge, according to the Cass County Sheriff’s Office. The man was shot in the lower right leg and taken to Cass Lake Indian Health Services, where he was treated for a non-life threatening injury.
18. WASILLA, AK, 9/22/13: A suspected robber stole a loaded gun from a Wasilla homeowner Sunday afternoon and then turned the gun on the man before fleeing in stolen clothes to a nearby house, Alaska State Troopers said. The West Wintergreen Drive homeowner told dispatchers that he chased Jones out of his house at about 4 p.m. after noticing an unlocked door, according to an affidavit filed at Palmer District Court by Trooper Andrew Gault. Then Jones pointed the homeowner's stolen .44-caliber revolver at him and told him to stop, the affidavit said. Jones was wearing the homeowner's stolen tan coat and pants. He ran off, the affidavit said.
19. BRUNSWICK, OH, 9/22/13: 9:20 p.m.—First block of Bettie Lane, a man was taken to the hospital with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to his arm. During an interview with Brunswick officers, the man said he had cleaned his 9 mm handgun and was putting it back together and replacing the magazine. He said he then watched a video on YouTube about gun cleaning and decided to take the gun apart again, forgetting that it was loaded when the firearm discharged, striking him in the left forearm.
20. SAN ANTONIO, TX, 9/22/13: A 14-year-old was shot in a hunting accident over the weekend, according to a parent at the high school he attended. Lloyd Hayes was killed in a hunting accident on Sunday, according to a parent from East Central High School, where Hayes attended. He was a member of the Freshman football team and on Monday, the school held a memorial in his honor. Attendees wore blue, according to the parent.
21. ROCK VALLEY, IA, 9/23/13: A rural Rock Valley man is in a Sioux Falls hospital after a gun went off and he was shot. The Sioux County Sheriff’s Office reports that about 12:25 PM on Sunday (9/23/13), they received a report of a person injured by gunshot at a place on 360th Street, six miles southwest of Rock Valley. Fifty-four-year-old David Heuer of Rock Valley reported that he was moving some guns in his home when a .22 caliber revolver fell to the ground and discharged, striking him in the arm.
22. OKLAHOMA CITY, OK, 9/23/13: Police are investigating what appears to be an accidental shooting in northwest Oklahoma City that left a woman dead. Just before 2 a.m. Monday, police were called to a home near N.W. 80th Street and the Broadway Extension. They found 53-year-old Cynthia Morris's body in the house. Police questioned her husband, 57-year-old Bernard Morris. Police say he is the one who shot his wife, but it appears to have been accidental.
23. FARGO, ND, 9/23/13: There's been another accidental shooting in Fargo. A man shot himself in the arm Monday morning. Police say the gun was wrapped in a towel that was inside a sleeping bag and went off as the man was handling the items in his garage in the 3000 block of 23rd Avenue South. The .40 caliber bullet was found lodged in the dashboard of a vehicle in the garage. Police are also investigating another gun accident Saturday night at an apartment on Amber Valley Parkway. This time no one was hurt but a gun discharged and the bullet lodged in a wall. Lt. Joel Vettel says in the past month, there have been six accidents involving pistols that resulted in 1 death and two injuries.
24. WILKES-BARRE, PA, 9/23/13: Police say Javon J. Isaac really shot himself in the foot. Isaac, 18, of 516 Hazle St., was arrested Monday evening after police found him suffering from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the foot, and investigators say he landed himself in more trouble after he attacked a police officer and had to be Tasered into submission. Officers arrived at Isaac's home about 7:10 p.m. to arrest him on a protection-from-abuse order violation, according to a police affidavit. They pulled up to find Isaac in front of his home, claiming an unknown gunman had shot him on Blackman Street. Isaac insisted he had been shot by a stranger, but police say there was no blood leading from the area of Blackman Street and there had not been any reports of gunfire there. There was, however, a blood trail stretching from Isaac's home, down the steps and to his feet, according to the affidavit.
25. DOVER, AR, 9/23/13: Keith Warnick, 49, is suspected of second-degree battery, a felony charge. A Pope County Sheriff’s Office deputy testified officers responded to a call just before 7 p.m. Monday on Warnick Lane, north of Dover. When they arrived, officials found a victim with “pretty severe” damage to both legs. Warnick was taken into custody after statements were made to officers the he accidentally shot the victim with a 12-gauge shotgun. According to testimony, Warnick asked the victim to leave and pulled out the shotgun. The two men began to argue over the shotgun when it went off. Both men were said to have been drinking heavily that evening.
26. OLYMPIA, WA, 9/24/13: A 17-year-old boy was about to clean his father's .45 caliber handgun at a residence on Rich Road SE Tuesday night when he shot himself in the foot, according to the Thurston County Sheriff's Office. "He was getting ready to clean his father's gun in the house," Brady said. He advised that he thought the gun was unloaded, but when he let the slide go and pulled the trigger, the gun went off, causing a through and through injury to his foot."
27. ANCHORAGE, AK, 9/24/13:  A 17-year-old from Eagle River was shot in the abdomen after a gun misfired in an Eagle River garage Tuesday just before 9:30 p.m., Anchorage police said. The teen, a male who was not identified, was treated for injuries not considered life-threatening at an area hospital, police said. A friend of the victim, an adult male, called 911, police spokeswoman Jennifer Castro said. He told dispatchers the pair was "moving the gun out of a safe to clean it," Castro wrote in an email. Police and medics responded.
28. PRINCE WILLIAM CO., VA, 9/24/13: An Alexandria police officer's department-issued gun was stolen from his personal car overnight Tuesday and police are looking for information from the public. The gun was taken from the locked trunk of the officer's car, which was parked overnight outside his home in Prince William County. The department-issued M-4 semi-automatic rifle was stolen along with a radar gun and an MBD laptop computer. The computer and radar gun were recovered a short time later.
29. BOZEMAN, MT, 9/24/13: A man accidentally fired his handgun in his home. An officer helped him find any possible bullet holes in the house.
30. KALISPELL, MT, 9/24/13: A man called police after a firearm was accidentally discharged by its owner while he was cleaning it at a Ninth Avenue West residence. When the firearm discharged, it fired a single round through the ceiling, but it did not strike anyone.
31. GREENWOOD, FL, 9/25/13: Authorities have identified two people who were shooting targets with rifles in a yard off Bevis Road Wednesday night when an 18-year-old man was shot in the foot. As of early Thursday morning, victim Kelley Harlow was still in an area hospital awaiting the removal of the bullet that pierced the wall of his single-wide mobile home and travelled through a bookcase before lodging in his right foot. The county’s 911 dispatcher sent officers to the Harlow home at 4964 Bevis Road, Greenwood, around 6:30 p.m. Family members told officers that Harlow was sitting at the dining table having supper when the bullet hit him, and several neighbors told authorities that they’d heard a number of gunshots around the time of the incident. The shooting was believed to have been accidental, and the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department is still trying to determine whether anyone else in the area may have also been firing guns at the time. Investigators returned to the scene Thursday to determine whether any more bullets struck the home or any other areas outside the pile of dirt that the men were using as a firing berm.
32. CALLAWAY, FL, 9/25/13: The Bay County Sheriff’s Office responded to a 911 call about 8:00 Wednesday night at the McDonald's near Tyndall Parkway and Cherry Street. When deputies got there, a crowd of people was standing around Charlie Hutchison, 18, of Tallahassee. Hutchison, who was holding his abdomen, said he accidentally shot himself with a .38 revolver. About a minute later, Hutchison’s girlfriend, Skye Hunter, 18, of Port St. Joe, and his younger brother, ran over to the scene. When a deputy asked Hunter about the gun, she said she threw it into some nearby woods because she was scared. Hunter claimed she thought it was illegal to be in possession of a gun in Florida. [Ed. note: WHAT?!] Deputies then questioned Hutchison’s younger brother. He said they had just eaten at McDonald’s. After getting back in the car, he says Charlie reached under the front passenger seat, pulled out a gun and was trying to de-cock it and put the gun in his waistband at the same time. When the gun went off, he says Charlie opened the door and fell out.
33. WARREN, OH, 9/25/13: A 13-year-old Laird Avenue girl was accidentally shot in the arm Wednesday afternoon at her house and taken to a local hospital for treatment. Warren police declined to identify the person who fired the shot, apparently from a rifle that was taken into evidence, along with a magazine for 22-caliber ammunition and nine 22-caliber bullets. The shooting was reported at 2:19 p.m. and remains under investigation, police said.
34. PARADISE TOWNSHIP, PA, 9/25/13: A 27-year-old Lancaster County man was struck on the head by falling shot from a nearby dove hunter in Paradise Twp. Sept. 25, state police in Lancaster said. The hunter, Virgil Scott Morningstar, 31, was hunting on his own property when the incident occurred at 6:59 p.m. in the 200 block of Esbenshade Road, police said. The victim was not seriously injured, police said.
35. WEST VALLEY CITY, UT, 9/26/13: Police are looking for a 16-year-old boy they say accidentally shot his 15-year-old friend Thursday. The 16-year-old was playing with a gun while the two teenagers and the victim’s girlfriend were hanging out on a grassy area at Homestead Farms Apartments, 1950 W. 3650 South, according to West Valley City Police Lt. Lamonte Cox. The victim’s girlfriend said the 16-year-old tried to shoot the gun into the ground and it didn’t go off, Cox said. The 16-year-old kept playing with the gun, accidentally shot his friend in the abdomen and ran away from the scene, he said.
36. BASSETT, VA, 9/26/13: A Henry County woman is in the hospital after police say she was accidentally shot by her husband. Police were called to the 2600 block of Oak Level road in Bassett at around 9:45 p.m. Thursday night. When they arrived, James Roger Clark, 47, told police that his semi-automatic pistol accidentally fired and struck his wife, Tammy Leigh Clark, 46. Police say the bullet struck her in both legs. James Clark was charged with Reckless Handling of a Firearm and one felony county of Unlawfully Discharging a Firearm in an Occupied Dwelling. He has been released on an unsecured bond.
37. SANFORD, FL, 9/26/13: An 18-year-old Seminole County man will have a permanent souvenir of a late-night encounter with a snake: a bullet in his thigh. Brandon Rapé was in a pickup truck with two friends Thursday about 11 p.m. when they pulled to the side of Sylvan Lake Drive near Sanford so that Rapé could answer the call of nature, a Sheriff's Office report states. The men saw a large snake in the road, and Jared Hemphill, also 18, decided to shoot it with a semiautomatic rifle that belongs to Dustin Downer, 21. Hemphill heard a noise in the bushes and assumed it was the snake, so he fired the Remington Speedmaster and accidentally struck Rapé in the left thigh, he told investigators.
38. FLINT, MI, 9/26/13: While fighting with his girlfriend, a man shot out her car window, then accidentally shot himself in the leg, according to a police report. Flint police were called to the 800 block of Buckingham Avenue on Thursday, September 26 around 2:45 p.m. for a shooting with a man down. When they arrived they found a 22-year-old man lying in the street after accidentally shooting himself in the right leg. The man's 20-year-old girlfriend told police she and her boyfriend got into an argument when he grabbed her by the hair and threw her to the ground. She said he then pulled out a black handgun and shot out her front driver side window. According to the report, when the suspect was putting the handgun away, it went off hitting him in the lower right leg.
39. OKLAHOMA CITY, OK, 9/27/13: A man was hit by a bullet that penetrated an apartment wall in northwest Oklahoma City early Friday, police said. Anthony Clark, 58, was inside his apartment in the 2300 block of NW 22 shortly after midnight when he heard yelling in an apartment next to his and a gun was fired. A round that went through the wall hit him, said Master Sgt. Gary Knight. No one has been arrested. The tenant who lives next to Clark was not sure who had been in her apartment. She said she was not home, Knight said.
40. LULA, GA, 9/27/13: A Banks County man was airlifted after suffering a gunshot wound Friday evening. Banks County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Deputy Carissa McFadden said the incident, which happened around 5:30 p.m., is being investigated as an accidental shooting to an adult male. The incident occurred at a residence off Moccasin Gap Road near Lula. UPDATE: "Upon further investigation, it was found that Ben Whisnant was loading his .45-caliber firearm when the firearm discharged, causing injury to his right thigh," said Deputy Carissa McFaddin, spokeswoman for the Banks County Sheriff's Office.
41. YONKERS, NY, 9/27/13: Two Yonkers teens have been taken into custody in connection with gunplay on Friday that left a pre-schooler wounded in her arm. Detectives said a 14-year-old and a 16-year-old were detained by police after the shooting, which was reported by several people who heard shots around Palisade Avenue and Locust Hill Avenue about 4:30 p.m. Friday. Police said the shooting was the result of a fight among several people. The child, a 3-year-old girl, was taken immediately to the Jacobi Medical Center’s trauma center and is listed in good condition. Officers said she appeared to have been accidentally shot.
42. DES MOINES, IA, 9/27/13: A Des Moines woman was allegedly struck in the head by a gunshot while in her apartment early Friday, according to a Des Moines police report. The 21-year-old woman told police she was lying on the floor of the living room in her apartment in the 900 block of Oakridge Drive. She said she heard one gunshot and felt something hit the back of her head. The victim called 911 and then went to a neighbor’s apartment for assistance but the neighbor was not home, the report said. Police arrived at her residence around 5:30 a.m. Friday to find blood on the handle of the apartment’s screen door and a hole in the window next to the door.

Originally posted to David Waldman on Sun Sep 29, 2013 at 04:29 PM PDT.