Gun Fail

MON SEP 23, 2013 AT 08:19 PM PDT

GunFAIL XXXVI

byDavid WaldmanFollow

Among the stories of particular note: the two New York City police officers who fired on a suspect but hit bystanders instead; the Arkansas town mayor who accidentally shot out a window in the police chief's office; the man who decided it would be appropriate to respond to a three-year-old's pretend finger "gun" with an actual firearm, which, naturally, he erroneously didn't think was loaded, and; the alleged car thief apprehended by armed citizens, but then "accidentally" killed when one of them fell down and discharged his weapon. Possibly more than once.

And of course, there was also this week's story I didn't know quite what to do with: the double-fatal road rage shootout in Ionia, MI, apparently involving two concealed carriers, one of whom had been arrested in 2006 for carrying concealed while intoxicated. This was closely followed four days later by another shootout two counties over, in Muskegon, MI, that left three dead. But that happened on Sunday, which means for our purposes it's a matter for GunFAIL XXXVII.

We're on GunFAIL XXXVI this week, and that list appears below the fold.

1. EAST HANOVER TOWNSHIP, PA, 9/05/13: Police in York are investigating an accidental shooting that injured a man in East Hanover Township. State Police at York said the incident occurred in the 100 block of North Hill Drive, East Hanover Township, Dauphin County, at 2:30 p.m. Sept. 5. Police said a 20-year-old man accidentally discharged a rifle in the home and suffered a non-life-threatening injury to his arm.
2. FLIPPIN, AR, 9/09/13: Authorities say no one was injured after the mayor of Flippin accidentally shot out a window in the police chief's office at City Hall. A police report obtained by The Baxter Bulletin (http://bit.ly/...) says the rifle had been seized by Flippin police. In the report, Police Chief Dusty Smith says he was on the telephone in his City Hall office when Mayor J.J. Hudson came in and picked up the gun. he chief says he heard a loud shot and saw a large hole in his window. No one was injured. Hudson told police that he was trying to unload the firearm and that the ammunition had jammed. He told the newspaper that "it's all been taken care of" and declined further comment. [See The Baxter Bulletin account for the full police report.]
3. ARCADIA, CA, 9/10/13: Shortly after 2:20 a.m., an officer made contact with a suspicious vehicle that was stopped in the area of First Avenue and Colorado Boulevard. The officer noticed the front passenger side window was broken. An investigation revealed the driver was handling a firearm while driving and accidentally shot one round in an unknown direction. The officer discovered the 53-year-old male was under the influence of alcohol with a blood alcohol content greater than 0.08 percent. The suspect was arrested and transported to the Arcadia City Jail for booking. The officer located the spent shell casing in the rear passenger seat of the vehicle and no injuries were reported.
4. NORTH BEND, WA, 9/11/13: An officer responded to a call about a shooting shortly after midnight Sept. 11 in the 300 block of West Second Street. A man had accidentally shot himself in his left leg with his Glock Model 17 gun.
5. OSSINING, NY, 9/12/13: A village teenager showing off a handgun accidentally shot himself in the hand. Police say Jabari Hylton, 19, was displaying his unlicensed, 9mm semiautomatic while visiting friends in a home on Broadway on Thursday morning. “There was no magazine in the gun, and he apparently didn’t realize it was still loaded,” police Lt. William Sullivan said. “There was one bullet in the chamber that went off.” The bullet blasted through his left index finger and struck a television set as he recoiled in pain. A couple friends in the room weren’t in the bullet’s path and escaped harm.
6. WHEELERSBURG, OH, 9/13/13: A Portsmouth man has been flown by helicopter to a Columbus hospital Friday after suffering an apparently accidental gunshot wound. John Little of 1251 Bierley Rd. Portsmouth was reportedly looking at a gun at Three D Outfitters gun store at 8508 Ohio River Road, Wheelersburg, when the gun discharged, striking him in the hand. Kevin Dingus said Little came into the store and asked to look at a Colt 1911 .45 pistol. He said he (Kevin Dingus) was busy at the time and his father, Paul M. Dingus retrieved a gun from the gun case and gave it to Little, who was turning it back and forth in his hand. Both said they were turned the other way when they heard the gun discharge, and saw Little on the floor. They said they called 911 and got shirt for him to wrap around his hand to stop the bleeding. He was flown to Riverside Hospital in Columbus. The gun reportedly had five live rounds in it at the time.
7. ST. LOUIS, MO, 9/14/13: A three year old boy is recovering after a bullet grazed his forehead Saturday night. St. Louis police say the boy was with his mother at a neighbor's house in the 3800 block of Folsom. Police say just after 10:00 p.m. Saturday the toddler found a gun, it went off and the bullet grazed his forehead. He's fine, but the homeowner was arrested.
8. NEW YORK, NY, 9/14/13: Cops trying to subdue an emotionally disturbed man with a long rap sheet accidentally shot two female bystanders outside Port Authority Bus Terminal on Saturday night, source said. Theodora Ray, 54, was struck in her leg — breaking two bones in her calf — as she stood leaning on her four-wheeled walker across from the terminal; Sahara Khoshakhlagh, 35, was grazed in her buttocks. Two cops pulled off a total of three shots in the mistaken belief that the deranged Glen Broadnax, 35, was armed after he reached into his pocket as they approached him, officials said. Broadnax took his hand out of his pocket and “simulated shooting the officers,” Police Commissioner Ray Kelly told reporters. “He’s got a gun!” witnesses said someone in the crowd shouted just before shots rang out.
9. SCHROEDER, MN, 9/14/13:  A shotgun accident at the Toohey Lake Campgrounds in Tofte Saturday left one person injured, according to deputies. The Cook County Sheriff's Office responded to the accident at around 2:30 p.m. Deputies said a man had accidentally shot himself in the eye.
10. INDIANAPOLIS, IN, 9/14/13: Indianapolis Metropolitan Police are investigating the shooting of an 11-year-old boy by his 13-year-old sister. Police originally said they believed the boy, who was shot in his left forearm, had been the victim of a drive-by shooting. But Lt. Christopher Bailey says after further investigation police believe the sister accidentally shot her brother, but the investigation is continuing. Police say the boy was shot about 9 p.m. Saturday.
11. WHETSTONE, AZ, 9/14/13: A man shot in the stomach in an apparent accidental shooting in Whetstone is in stable condition at a Tucson hospital. Michael Van Kirk, 19, was airlifted to University Medical Center on Saturday after Cochise County Sheriff’s Deputies responded to a report of shots fired on Via Corta at about 5:20 p.m. Two women, a mother and daughter, had been checking the mother’s .44-caliber revolver at the residence. The mother was apparently having difficulty with the gun, and the daughter took possession of it. Soon after, it discharged, the bullet striking Van Kirk in the abdomen.
12. JEMISON, AL, 9/14/13: An accidental shooting late Saturday night resulted in a 25-year-old Jemison female and her 3-year-old child being hospitalized in Birmingham from a single gunshot wound. Chilton County Sheriff Kevin Davis said authorities responded to a call at 10 p.m. Sept. 14 from the 900 block of County Road 178 from a subject advising authorities he had shot his wife and child with a gun. Davis said when the caller told the 911 dispatcher he had shot his wife and child with a gun, the caller’s cell phone went dead. Once on the scene, Davis said officers from the Jemison Police Department along with deputies from the sheriff’s department and an off-duty police officer who lives in the neighborhood found the female and her 3-year-old child suffering from a single gunshot wound after the male, 27, accidentally shot them while cleaning his gun in the family living room. Davis said after two investigators from the Criminal Investigation Unit with the sheriff’s department responded to the scene, they determined that Charles Martin accidentally shot Debra Martin and their child. “He [Charles] told authorities that he had just completed cleaning his handgun, was in the process of reloading it and had an accidental discharge of the gun,” Davis said. “A single bullet struck the wife, exited the wife and struck the child. One shot was fired and that one shot struck both the wife and the child.”
13. FORT WORTH, TX, 9/14/13: A 78-year-old woman was shot in the foot late Saturday when her shotgun discharged after her dog accidentally knocked it over. The woman had been watching television inside her east Fort Worth house shortly before midnight Saturday with her shotgun by her side, according to Officer Sharron Neal, a police spokeswoman. The woman told police that her dog walked by, knocking the shotgun over and causing it to discharge once as it hit the floor. She was struck in the left foot but did not seek medical attention that night, Neal said. The next morning, the woman awoke to find her foot swollen and in worse shape than the night before. She then sought treatment at a Fort Worth hospital, police said. “The victim advised it was an accident and the dog was not to blame,” Neal said.
14. SALEM, MA, 9/14/13: A Dorchester man, angry after being asked to leave a house party early Saturday morning, returned and opened fire on the Linden Street house, sending one bullet through a neighbor’s bedroom wall, a foot from where a woman was nursing a 61/2-week-old infant, police said. Evans Timouche, 25, of 37 Fairmount St., Dorchester, is now being held without bail on a charge of home invasion.
15. LAKE VILLA, IL, 9/14/13: A Lake Villa man is facing 15 years in jail after being charged with aggravated discharge of a firearm after what he says was the accidental shooting of his neighbor during a night of drinking, authorities said. Frank Geu, 44, of the 36000 block of N. Alice Drive, was drinking with the victim inside the neighbor's garage on Saturday, Sept. 14, when he loaded a gun, then shot the neighbor at about 9:11 p.m., said Lake County Assistant States Attorney Stephen Scheller. Scheller said the two neighbors were drinking when they started having a conversation about guns. The discussion prompted Geu to leave the neighbor's house, go to his own home, then return with two, fully-loaded, semiautomatic handguns to show the victim. When inspecting the guns, Scheller said the victim noticed the guns were loaded, so he unloaded the weapons for inspection. After returning the guns to Geu, the victim turned his back for a second, at which time Geu reloaded one of the weapons, pointed it at the victim, and pulled the trigger, Scheller said. Police interviewed Geu and the victim, Scheller said, and both shared a similar story. Geu said the shooting was an accident and that he never intended to fire the weapon at his neighbor.
16. TAHLEQUAH, OK, 9/14/13: Cherokee County sheriff’s deputies arrested a 22-year-old Hulbert woman Saturday after she allegedly shot her father.  Deputies responded to West 720 Road and North 440 Road after Nykki Richmond called 911 and said she accidentally shot her father, Heath Richmond, according to Deputy Daniel Pruitt’s report of the incident.  Pruitt said deputies arrived and found Heath Richmond on the ground in a nearby wooded area. He had suffered multiple wounds to his legs, arms, face and head, which deputies believe were caused by the buckshot of the gun Nykki Richmond had fired. Deputies said Nykki Richmond said her father had been arguing with her mother throughout the day and decided to leave, but later returned to the home. When he again decided to leave, Nykki Richmond grabbed a gun and followed him out of the home, she told deputies. Deputies said that at some point, she fired the gun into a wooded area hoping to “scare” or “warn” her father, whom she thought had gone but might be coming back. After she fired the shot, she noticed her father fall to the ground inside the nearby wooded area.
17. PARMA, OH, 9/14/13: Casualty, Thorton Drive: A Brooklyn man, 35, shot himself in the thigh by accident Sept. 14 while trying to secure his handgun inside his vehicle. He was attending a birthday party.
18. GENOA TOWNSHIP, MI, 9/14/13: A Genoa Township woman told police that someone shot a bullet into her bedroom. The 52-year-old woman, who lives on Latson Road in the Prentis Estates apartments, said she was in her dining room around 5 p.m. Sept. 14 when she heard the sound of breaking glass, according to a police report. When the woman went to investigate, she discovered a broken window in a bedroom and a bullet lying on the carpet, the report noted. A deputy said the view from the window is a field and the interstate. He said it appeared the bullet’s trajectory was “coming down,” the report noted. He said the bullet appears to be a .223-caliber or 5.56 mm weapon.
19. FARMVILLE, VA, 9/15/13: A Longwood University student was injured in what school police are calling an accidental shooting. A university statement this morning said Kathleen Battle, 21, was taken to Centra Southside Community Hospital to be treated for a gunshot wound to one leg. Her injuries were not believed to be serious. The university said Jacob E. Richardson, 22, another Longwood student, was showing a firearm to a friend in the 500 block of High Street about 8 p.m. Sunday when the gun discharged.MORE: the incident occurred about 8 p.m. at Battle’s residence on the 500 block of High Street. Richardson had left his handgun there because “his roommates were having a gathering at his place and he didn’t want anything to happen to it,” Mooney said. He was unloading the gun when it went off.
20. MICHIGAN CITY, IN, 9/15/13: Authorities say a 3-year-old boy was fatally shot at his family's home in northwestern Indiana. The shooting happened Sunday in Michigan City at the Terrace Acres Mobile Home Park. LaPorte County coroner John Sullivan tells WSBT-TV it is likely an accidental shooting, but that investigators were working to determine what happened. The station reports other people were inside the home at the time and that people were being interviewed at the Michigan City police station.UPDATE: Investigators found that Lance [Wilson, the boy killed] and [the boy's mother's boyfriend, Zachariah] Grisham had been playing a game, with the boy using his hand to pretend to shoot Grisham, and during the game, Grisham took out a handgun and, thinking it was not loaded, pulled the trigger. The boy was shot in the head.
21. NEW ORLEANS, LA, 9/15/13: A man police say was intoxicated accidentally shot his 5-year-old son in eastern New Orleans on Sunday night. The boy was shot just before 8 p.m. in the 4700 block of Sherwood Drive, and was taken to a hospital where he underwent surgery, said NOPD spokeswoman Officer Hilal Williams. Police say the man, who was not immediately identified, began shooting at his wife during an argument when a bullet pierced a wall and hit the boy in a different room of the house. The boy was struck in the leg and the side.
22. WALDORF, MD, 9/15/13: On Sept. 15 at 5:50 p.m., officers responded to the 3000 block of Heathcote Road in Waldorf for the report of an accidental shooting. Upon arrival, officers located an 18-year-old male who claimed he accidentally shot himself with a gun he allegedly found. The male was transported to a hospital where he was treated for a non life-threatening gunshot wound. The details of the case are being investigated. Cpl. G. Barnhart is investigating.
23. MARSHALLTOWN, IA, 9/15/13: A 33-year-old Marshalltown man has been identified by police as the victim in an apparent accidental shooting Sunday morning. Daniel Berg was discovered about 6:30 a.m. Sunday morning inside the residence at 12 W. Grant St. Police were dispatched when a woman called 911 reporting his death. Police had earlier responded to the area for a call about gunshots just before 5 a.m., however officers didn't find any evidence at that time. "So far it appears to be a tragic and accidental death," said Capt. Mike Hanken with the Marshalltown Police Department.
24. ATHENS, GA, 9/15/13: A University of Georgia student called Athens-Clarke County Police Sunday at 11:25 a.m. after finding a bullet hole in the wall of her house on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway, according to a police report. The student was reportedly moving a broken picture she found on her living room floor Sunday morning when she “saw where a bullet had come from outside and now was lodged in the wooden frame of a chair.” She said she had been home all night and didn’t hear any gunshots, according to the police report. The reporting officer said the bullet “appeared” to come from Ruth Street and that the person who fired the gun was on the ground.
25. WINFIELD, KS, 9/16/13: A person was injured early this morning as a result of a gunshot wound to their toe. The incident occurred around 1 a.m. in the 700 block of E. 13th Avenue in Winfield. The incident was being considered a self inflicted accidental shooting.
26. DALLAS, TX, 9/16/13: A Dallas police officer accidentally fired his gun while he was trying to draw it on a man who was running toward him Monday night near West Ledbetter Drive and South Westmoreland Road, police said. A resident had called police about 8:30 p.m. to report that an unfamiliar man was sitting on the front porch of a neighbor’s home in the 3800 block of Pictureline Drive. When the first officer, identified as Curtis Brown, arrived, he saw the witness arguing with the man on the porch. As the officer approached, the man began walking away, police said. The officer ordered the man to stop and saw he was carrying an object, police say. The man, who the officer reported seemed incoherent, charged, with a stick in his hand, according to a police report. The officer said he drew his gun as he tried to retreat. The man struck the officer on the side of the neck, and the officer unintentionally fired his weapon. Police say no one was wounded by the shot.
27. STEPHENVILLE, TX, 9/16/13: The Stephenville Police Department is investigating how an officer's gun discharged Monday near the courthouse annex. The officer was reportedly doing a "sweep" of an empty building on College Street shortly after 10 a.m. in preparation for Eddie Routh's court appearance when the gun fired into the floor. No one was injured.
28. DIBBLE, OK, 9/16/13: A Dibble teenager is in ICU at the OU Medical Center after an accidental shooting Monday night. McClain County Sheriff Detective David Tompkins said two 14-year-old Dibble boys were dove hunting when one of the boys was shot in the upper body area between 7:45 and 8 p.m. Monday night. The youth underwent emergency surgery and faces additional surgeries, Tompkins told The Purcell Register Tuesday afternoon.
29. GATES, NY, 9/16/13: A Gates woman went to bed just in time on Monday night. "Yeah, I was just going to bed,” said Marjorie Merzke. “I was here doing my bills and working on my computer moments before I heard the big boom.” She initially dismissed the noise but awoke the next morning to find damage to the wall just a foot or two from where she was sitting the night before. "I didn't even think what it was that is why I went next door to see him (her neighbor) to see if he heard the big boom and he said yeah it was from me,” explained Merzke. Her next door neighbor, an 81-year-old man who 13WHAM News is not naming, explained that he was cleaning his shotgun at the time. He said he had not touched the gun in two years and thought it was unloaded but when it slipped a live round was fired into the wall but his kitchen table. "If it wasn't for that firewall it probably would've come through,” Merzke said of the slug that is presumably still inside the wall. "Crazy world, you're not even safe in your own home anymore."
30. ALLEN PARK, MI, 9/16/13: A man was hospitalized Monday, Sept. 16 after he shot himself in the leg while checking out at a local grocery store. Officers were called to Meijer, 3565 Fairlane Drive, at about 2:30 a.m. on a report of a gunshot in the store. When officers arrived, they found the man on the ground near the grocery entrance and a black handgun on the ground near him. The man told officers he accidentally shot himself in the leg while reaching to get his debit card out of his pocket. He had a valid permit to carry the weapon. The gun had been concealed in his waistband. The gun slid down the man’s pant leg to the floor. He said he picked up the weapon and attempted to return it to his waistband. The gun went off and a bullet hit him in the leg. Witnesses told police that it happened the way the man recounted.
31. LYONS, IL, 9/17/13: One person was critically injured in what appears to be a shooting accident at a suburban gun range. The incident happened at Midwest Gun Shop, in the 8500 block of Plainfield Road in Lyons shortly before 2 p.m. on Tuesday, police said. When police arrived, they found a person on the first floor of the gun range with a serious head wound, apparently from a gunshot. Police are reviewing video surveillance from the gun store and right now are treating this incident as a possible accidental shooting. UPDATE: At least one report says he was "shot multiple times in the neck and head." Highly unusual, to say the least.
32. HOUSTON, TX, 9/17/13: A 17-year-old boy accidentally shot his 16-year-old sister in the leg after returning home from school on Tuesday afternoon, according to police. Authorities said the young boy was playing with the gun and showed it to his sister when he accidentally shot her in the leg. The brother hid the gun in the woods, but informed police she was hit outside the home by a random shooter.
33. SUNRISE, FL, 9/17/13: A 19-year-old man who shot himself in the leg walked into a fire station seeking help on Tuesday, according to Sunrise Police. The teenager showed up around 4:16 p.m. at Sunrise Fire Station 59 at 8200 NW 27 Pl., Sgt. Rodney Hailey said. The teen told paramedics he was handling a gun in his room and it went off. The bullet struck him in the leg.
34. JAY, OK, 9/17/13: An Oklahoma man is believed to have shot another passenger in the back while twirling a handgun on his finger like a cowboy in the back seat of a car. Capt. Gayle Wells, with the Delaware County Sheriff’s Department, said sheriff’s deputies received a report at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday of an apparent robbery and shooting on Oklahoma Highway 412 near the Arkansas state line. James and his girlfriend, Marion Snell, 23, initially reported that they had picked up a hitchhiker on Highway 412 who tried to rob them and shot James, according to Wells. He said they told authorities that the hitchhiker got out of their car and fled toward Mosely School after the shooting. Deputies began searching the area but failed to find any suspect.  A West Siloam police officer and a detective then interviewed James and Snell a second time at the hospital and learned that they had fabricated the story about a hitchhiker out of a professed fear of the actual shooter, whom they identified as Johnathan W. Gardner, 20, of Colcord. Wells said the couple reported that Gardner and his girlfriend, Katie Jo Jenks, had been riding in the back seat of their car, with Snell driving and James in the front passenger seat. Gardner and James were playing with a small handgun, passing it back and forth and twirling it “cowboy style” as they cruised down New Life Ranch Road between Colcord and West Siloam Springs, Wells said. Gardner was playing with the gun when it discharged, and the bullet passed through the front seat into the back of James, he said.
35. SAN ANTONIO, TX, 9/17/13: A security guard was shot in the leg with his own gun. It happened as he tried to break up a fight between a man and woman on Quail Creek near Loop 410 on the Northeast Side. The security guard was taken to SAMC for treatment. Police say the male suspect grabbed the security guard's gun and shot him in the leg. The suspect was later caught in the nearby Silver Ridge apartment complex.
36. JONESBORO, AR, 9/18/13: Jonesboro police say a teenager has died in what appears to be an accidental shooting outside of a fast food restaurant. Sgt. Doug Formon says the shooting was reported Wednesday night at a Chick-fil-A restaurant in Jonesboro. Formon tells Jonesboro television station KAIT that the shooting happened inside a truck that was in the restaurant's parking lot. Formon says three people were in the truck at the time of the shooting. Police say the victim, who was male, was taken to a hospital where he later died.
37. ASHEBORO, NC, 9/18/13: Emergency personnel are responding to a person suffering from a gunshot wound in Randolph County, dispatchers said. Officials are using Ramseur Elementary School, 6755 Jordan Road, in Ramseur as a staging area, where the victim will be picked up by helicopter, dispatchers said. The school was not the scene of the shooting, which was reported to be accidental, dispatchers said.
38. RAMSEUR, NC, 9/18/13: A Ramseur resident who accidentally shot herself in the leg Wednesday has been charged with discharging a firearm in city limits. Ramseur Police Lt. D. Presley said Thursday that according to his investigation of the incident, Brenda Carter, 33, of 572 Coleridge Road, took a 9-mm handgun outside her house and fired a round into the ground shortly before 6 p.m. on Wednesday. She was headed up the side steps back into the house, but forgot to put the safety on and the gun fired a second time, wounding her in the leg. She fell off the steps and the gun fell to the ground, Presley said. One of two juveniles present at the time picked up the gun and “apparently didn’t know any other way to unload it other than to fire three rounds into the ground,” Presley said. Presley said that Carter told him she did not know why she fired the first shot into the ground. Carter was taken by ambulance to Moses Cone Memorial Hospital in Greensboro following the shooting. She was back home Thursday when she was charged. Presley said she was lucky that the bullet did not hit bone. “According to her,” he said, “the doctor stated to her she’s very lucky it didn’t hit the femoral artery or she would have bled to death.”
39. HORSESHOE BAY, TX, 9/19/13: Surgeons removed the right lung of a 3-year-old boy after he allegedly accidentally shot himself Sept. 19 at residence in the 600 block of Rocky Ridge, but authorities expressed concerns about the parents’ behavior following the incident. During the investigation, Horseshoe Bay officers accompanied the parents back to the residence, where police recovered a loaded handgun lying on the kitchen table, according to the release. The parents told officers the child picked up the gun and it went off. During the course of the initial investigation, officers learned the gun found inside the residence wasn’t the one involved in the shooting, according to the release. Investigators received conflicting information regarding the weapon with one account suggesting the father hid the weapon in nearby brush and the other account suggesting the mother hid the gun along with other firearms in a neighbor’s home. While a search of a nearby wooded area was unsuccessful, investigators located the neighbor and, upon getting permission to search the residence, they located three handguns and a lever-action rifle. Investigators believe the shooting was accidental, but they do have concerns about why the parents attempted to hide the weapon involved in the incident, according to the release.
40. GARY, IN, 9/19/13: An 8-year-old boy reportedly was shot and wounded by his 11-year-old brother when a gun the two were playing with accidentally discharged Thursday afternoon. The incident occurred while the two boys were visiting a neighbor’s house in the 200 block of Hanley Street around 3:13 p.m., according to reports. While the boys were inside the residence, they reportedly found a handgun on a dresser and picked it up to play with, thinking it was a toy. The 11-year-old reportedly pulled the trigger and the gun went off, striking the 8-year-old in the shoulder.
41. LAWTON, OK, 9/19/13: A Lawton man has been arrested in what police said was an accidental shooting on the city's west side. Emergency responders and police were called to a house at 5725 NW Cedarwood Drive just after 10 p.m. Thursday after receiving a call that a man there had been shot in the head. Officers found Mark Comacho-Ramos suffering from a gunshot wound to the head, but the person who's alleged to have pulled the trigger wasn't there. "The shooting was not self-inflicted; however, all the witness statements obtained stated that it was an accidental shooting," Lawton Police Capt. Craig Akard said.
42. HAYWARD, CA, 9/19/13: A Northern California couple didn't report that their 10-year-old daughter had been shot for more than five hours because they thought she was bleeding menstrual blood, police said Friday. The girl was sleeping in her Hayward home around 2 a.m. Thursday when a stray bullet from drive-by shooting wounded her in the buttocks, Sgt. Mark Ormsby said. When the girl woke up in pain and had blood in her underwear, her parents thought she had started her period, police said. They also found no indication she had been shot when they took her to the bathroom. Ormsby said when she woke up for school and was still in pain, her parents inspected her bed and saw bullet holes.
43. SAN ANTONIO, TX, 9/20/13: A 5-year-old girl was shot in the leg after an argument led to gunfire in front of her mother's far West Side house, police said. The girl was inside the home in the 2300 block of Gunsmoke Drive just off of Loop 410 when around 5 p.m. she was hit by a stray bullet, said Sgt. Rudy Lopez. Lopez said the argument was among residents in the house and a group of friends of a man who lived behind the home. Police came to the house at 2 p.m. for a disturbance, but all the parties said they would leave, Lopez added. Two women and two men returned just before 5 p.m., and the argument resumed outside. One of the women reportedly pointed the gun and shot at the ground. It wasn't clear how the girl was hit, Lopez said. She was taken to University Hospital.
44. KNOX CO., KY, 9/20/13: Police spent much of the morning searching for shell casings at a Morris Lane home of a Barbourville-area pastor, after a burglar was shot trying to steal the pastor's van. The pastor said his neighbor spotted someone walking along the nearby train tracks at around midnight, and then make a burglary attempt. "The subject came over behind the van, walked around to the side of the van, and was inside of the van whenever the homeowner and his neighbor approached him," said Trooper Jacobs. State Police Trooper Shane Jacobs says the pastor's neighbor's wife called 911 as he called the owner of the van. Both grabbed a gun, and approached the burglar. The two men say they caught him in the act. "At that time they put him down over here in the grass, and told him to wait until police arrived," Trooper Jacobs said. But just moments before officers got there, the burglar ran, said the two men. The homeowner said his neighbor had his gun raised to the burglar, because it looked like the burglar was about to throw something at him. He said the neighbor accidentally fell down when he already had that gun raised, and when he hit the ground, a shot went off, striking the burglar. The shooting victim died on the way to the hospital, and troopers say the story seems to hold up. [Ed. note: Are you serious?]
45. INDIANAPOLIS, IN, 9/20/13: A 5-year-old child was shot tonight by a bullet fired about a quarter of a mile away on the city’s Far Eastside, police said. The shooting occurred about 10:10 p.m. and the bullets appeared to have come from the 4100 block of Brentwood Drive. Police think the bullets traveled about a quarter of a mile and struck the boy as he was getting ready for bed in an apartment in the 9100 block of East 42nd Street. The child apparently was shot in the shoulder but was reported in good condition at Riley Hospital for Children at IU Health. Early reports indicated the boy had been shot in the back.
46. BAYTOWN, TX, 9/20/13: No one was injured in the apparently accidental discharge of a gun outside San Jacinto Elementary School as classes were letting out for the day Friday. A Goose Creek CISD spokeswoman said the shot was fired at the intersection of Georgia and Kentucky streets, behind the school. She said no one was injured, and Baytown police were on the scene investigating.
47. GAINESVILLE, FL, 9/20/13: A former Marine Corps captain who officials said they found sitting on top of a truck with an array of weapons was arrested on several charges by Gainesville police late Friday night. Robert Anthony Brooks II, 31, of 3611 SW 34th St., Apt. 48, was charged with aggravated assault, improper exhibition of a firearm and disorderly conduct, according to an arrest report. The incident occurred about 11 p.m. in the parking lot at Ridgemar Commons, where Brooks lives. Several people reported that Brooks was sitting on top of a truck with an assault weapon. One caller said that a shot had been fired. Brooks had two .45-caliber handguns in his waistband and a shoulder holster with extra magazines, police said. On top of his truck was an AR-15 rifle and a 12-gauge shotgun, police reported. Police said Brooks may have been targeting a woman with whom he had been in a non-dating relationship. The original caller saw Brooks on top of his truck with his AR-15 on a bi-pod pointing at the door of the apartment of the woman. When the woman, her adult daughter and two men returned from a yogurt shop, Brooks jumped down from his truck and advanced toward their car with the shotgun pointed at the car, Tobias said. The woman got out to try to stop Brooks, which is when Brooks accidentally fired the gun.

ORIGINALLY POSTED TO DAVID WALDMAN ON MON SEP 23, 2013 AT 08:19 PM PDT