Gun Fail 56

Wed Feb 12, 2014 at 03:46 PM PST

Dear My Own Parenting Advice Column, I never thought this would happen to me: GunFAIL LVI

by David Waldman

Seven of 37 guns found with passengers by TSA agents at airports around the country last week.

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Another relatively lucky (meaning quiet) week in GunFAIL. Just 35 incidents listed, but a whopping 14 of them are people who accidentally shot themselves. Four of the mishaps involved cops or other law enforcement officials, three involved hunters, and three involved guns being carried loose in the owners' pockets. 

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Four of our listings involved people out shopping, dining or working among us, including a furniture store employee whose pocket gun went off and shot him out on the sales floor, one patron of a self-storage facility whose gun went off and shot another patron two units down, and an elderly gentleman whose pocket gun went off outside a lunch spot apparently popular with the local cops. Not good! But neither is carrying your gun loose in your pocket, with a round chambered and the hammer cocked. I'm guessing they teach you not to do that in concealed carry permitting class, but that didn't stop this fellow, who professed to have no idea how or why his gun went off. Thanks for keeping us all safe, sir! Your neighborhood ninja, ladies and gentleman.
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Kid victims of GunFAIL were relatively few. Just seven this week, but as usual, the youngest among them were accidentally shot by their own siblings and parents, including a 17-month-old girl shot by her 3-year-old brother, who found dad's gun kept securely atop his bedroom dresser. Those who prefer to call such incidents ParentFAIL will perhaps be surprised to learn that dad's the local parenting advice columnist. And yet I give even odds that there won't be any lesson shared about this in future columns. Still, someone in town ought to say something about locals needing to be more careful with their weapons, since Shelby, NC (pop. 20,270) saw both this incident and the furniture store shooting.
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Without further ado, then, on to the GunFAIL, below the fold.
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1. AUSTIN, TX, November 2013, exact date unknown: An Austin police officer is temporarily suspended one day after misfiring his shotgun last November. Officer Benjamin Rohe responded to a burglary alarm at a Walgreens store at Parmer Lane in Northwest Austin. While he was clearing his gun, he accidentally fired one round into the pavement. No injuries were reported. Officer Rohe's suspension will go into effect Friday. [Ed. note: Sound familiar? It should. Rohe is the fourth Austin officer suspended for accidentally discharging a shotgun in November 2013. See GunFAILs XLIX and LI.
2. SPRINGFIELD, MO, 1/22/14: Investigators say a man accused of accidentally shooting and killing another man had once threatened to kill him. Court documents say an investigator has been in contact with a friend of the 60-year-old man who was shot. The friend told the investigator that Gordon D. Knight, 51, “previously threatened to kill (Jackie E.) Swearingin,” according to the document. Where and when that allegedly happened and who made the statement is not noted in the document. Deputies responded to a home in the 7300 block of West Farm Road 136 on Jan. 22 after someone called 911 to report a shooting. Authorities arrived and found Knight holding a dish towel over a wound on Swearingin’s face. Swearingin was sitting in a chair, slumped over with a large pool of blood on the floor next to him. Knight allegedly told deputies he and Swearingin had been drinking beer, smoking marijuana and shooting guns all day. According to documents, Knight told deputies Swearingin loaded a handgun and was handing it to him when the gun went off, shooting Swearingin in the face. Knight allegedly said he was not touching the gun when it went off, but after it fired he picked the gun up and put it on a dresser before calling 911. After giving his initial statement, Knight became uncooperative, documents say. Deputies say they later discovered what appeared to be bullet holes in the floor and walls of the residence.
3. WEST ASHLEY, SC, 1/25/14: A West Ashley couple is asking for stepped up police patrols after a stray bullet was fired into their home. It happened on January 25 at a house on Mulmar Street. The shot was fired through the front window around 11 p.m. Homeowners Don and Jane Edwards were in other rooms at the time. "I heard glass breaking and it sounded like a buzz and something go thump," Don Edwards said. "I got up instantly, ran down the hall. She was at the other end of the house. Before I called 911, I wanted to make sure my imagination wasn't running away with me." Charleston County sheriff's deputies believe the Edwards' were not the intended targets. According to an incident report, a witness told investigators the shots were fired from a car in the parking lot of the Georgetown Apartments right across the street. Deputies found four shell casings on the ground near the building. With the bullet hole in the wall still there to remind them about their close call, the couple says they will be more aware of what's going on outside their house. "I bet if you got in a room with 50 people and you could ask them all right, whose house had a bullet shot into your house, I don't think you'd get one hand to go up," Don Edwards said. The Charleston County Sheriff's Office says they have no suspects identified in the shooting.
4. ONALASKA, WI, 1/27/14: Police responded to the 1300 block of Ridgeway Avenue, where a 45-year-old man accidentally shot himself in the left hand, maiming two fingers.
5. BROOKLYN, NY, 1/29/14: A man who pulled a gun on a friend during a fight about money in Crown Heights last week wound up killing his friend's pit bull and shooting himself in the neck by accident, police said. Mark McLeod, 33, was in his unidentified friend's basement on Union Street when the argument broke out about 8 p.m. Jan. 29, police said. McLeod whipped out a silver handgun, leading to a tussle during which the gun went off, according to the Brooklyn District Attorney's criminal complaint. McLeod fired two more shots as his 31-year-old friend fled upstairs, where the friend's three young children were playing, police said. McLeod then blasted another two rounds at the man's pet pit bull when the dog rushed to his master's aid, according to the criminal complaint. The dog died of apparent gunshot wounds, according to the complaint. At some point in the melee, McLeod accidentally shot himself in the neck, police said. He was taken to Kings County Hospital and was later arrested.
6. NEW PHILADELPHIA, OH, 1/30/14: Twin brothers charged in the theft of a 9mm handgun were bound over Thursday to the Tuscarawas County grand jury following a preliminary hearing in Municipal Court. Kristian M. Winkler, 23, was bound over on a grand theft of a firearm charge, a third-degree felony. Kristopher D. Winkler, 23, was bound over on a complicity to theft of a firearm charge. Both men's addresses are listed as 804 Johnson Ave., Dennison. The men were charged in connection with the theft of a Springfield Armory XD 9mm pistol from a Ridge Avenue NE, New Philadelphia, man's car early Jan. 30. The following day, a woman went to the police station to report that a firearm, which she believed to be stolen, had been fired inside her Ridge Avenue NE residence, according to Officer James Miller of the New Philadelphia Police Department. Miller said the Winkler brothers were identified and arrested a short time later, and a woman who was with them at the time told officers that the gun might be in her house, as she had picked them up the morning the gun was stolen. Officers went to the woman's Fourth Street NW residence Saturday morning, where she located the gun, which was unloaded. Those who testified at the preliminary hearing included the woman in whose residence the weapon had been fired, the woman in whose home the gun was located, and Miller. "Everybody involved said it was an accidental discharge," Miller said. He added that no one was injured.
7. SEATTLE, WA, 1/31/14: Three charges are now filed against the man arrested last Friday night after law enforcers in the air and on the ground tracked a stolen SUV to a house near The Junction. 32-year-old Nicholas Broughton is described in court documents as an “11-time convicted felon.” He is charged with possession of a stolen vehicle, hit and run, and first-degree criminal trespass. The case report also mentions the gunshot neighbors heard that night: “At some point during the foot pursuit of the suspect, there was an officer-involved accidental discharge of a firearm.” A separate report number is listed.
8. BRAINERD, MN, 1/31/14: SHOOTING — A report at 10:43 p.m. Friday of an accidental discharge of a firearm on the 200 block of South Eighth Street.
9. WELLFORD, SC, 2/01/14: A Wellford man was arrested on a gun charge after what deputies say was an accidental shooting Saturday night. An arrest warrant states that John Phillip Thompson, 39, of 211 Half Moon Road was charged with unlawful possession of a pistol. A man sustained a gunshot wound to the head about 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Thompson's home, Sgt. Floyd Turley of the Spartanburg County Sheriff's Office said. The 33-year-old man was taken to Spartanburg Regional Medical Center for injuries and was conscious while being transported, Turley said. Deputies believe the gunshot might have only grazed his scalp during the shooting, he said. The victim's girlfriend said in an interview that she dropped him off at a friend's house on Half Moon Road and left. She said a group of friends were there at the time. Within five minutes of leaving, the girlfriend said she received a call from a woman whom she did not know saying, “he's been shot, he's been shot. You need to get back here,” she said. “I called 911, but I didn't really know anything,” she said at the scene of the shooting before leaving to go to the hospital. Deputies found a .40-caliber Ruger believed to have been used in the shooting, according to an incident report. Thompson, who is prohibited from owning a gun because of his criminal history, was booked into the Spartanburg County Detention Facility late Saturday. He told police that the gun went off accidentally while he was handling it, the report states. UPDATE: Michael Burdette said John Philip Thompson accidentally shot him in the head while he was showing Burdette his handgun, but then only gave him a towel while he lay bleeding. After a few minutes, Burdette said Thompson finally called Burdette's wife so she could take him to the hospital. Two others were also on the scene, Burdette said. He said neither of them called 911.
10. FLINT, MI, 2/01/14: A man shot himself in the leg by accident Saturday night, police report. The man told police around he was waiting in a car for his two friends who were inside a party store in the 3000 block of West Corunna Road around 11:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 1. He said while he waited in the parking lot, he began playing with his Glock 21 .45-caliber handgun when it discharged. The bullet pierced the man's left upper thigh and passed through to his left calf, the police report shows. One of the man's friends came out of the party store and drove him to the emergency room, where he received surgery for his injuries, police said.
11. CHICAGO, IL, 2/02/14: A man took himself to Norwegian-American Hospital about 3 a.m. for treatment of a gunshot wound to the toe which happened when he accidentally shot himself in the 4100 block of West Crystal Street in the West Humboldt Park neighborhood on the West Side, police said. His injuries were not life threatening.
12. WEST GARDINER, ME, 2/02/14: Police are investigating a shooting that injured a man ice fishing on Cobbosee Stream Sunday. A man in his mid-40s was transported to the MaineGeneral Medical Center, by Gardiner Ambulance, after being struck in the head while fishing with friends off Manning Drive, just before noon. Police, who declined to identify the victim, characterized his wounds as non-life-threatening. “As far as we know he’s doing well, he’s at the Augusta hospital, investigators are there talking to him at this moment,” District Game Warden Robert Decker said Sunday afternoon. “It was a gunshot wound to the head. It sounds like it was superficial.” Decker identified 21-year-old Bryan Hickey, of West Gardiner, as the shooter. Decker, who described the incident as a “hunting incident, in which someone was shot,” said Hickey “Was out shooting his firearm. It’s under investigation at this time, as to what he was shooting at.” Decker said it appears Decker “accidentally shot at the victim.” Marine Patrol Officer Clint Thompson emerged from the woods shortly after noon Sunday carrying a Chinese-made rifle, which had a folded bayonet attached, which he placed in a game warden’s truck, along with several shells, after applying an evidence tag. Hunting on Sundays is illegal in Maine.
13. CARSON CITY, NV, 2/02/14: A man shot himself in the chin early Sunday morning in what the Carson City Sheriff's Office are calling an accidental shooting. Deputies were called to the 1400 block of North Nevada street at 1:53 a.m. Sunday after a man called 911 saying his brother shot himself. A preliminary report shows two brothers were arguing at the residence. One of the brother's pointed a 12-guage shotgun to himself in the face area. The other brother reportedly hit the gun, presumably to knock it away, when the gun discharged into the chin of the man. The brother who knocked the gun away called 911 and rendered aid to his brother who was taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries sustained to the chin. No arrests were made.
14. OAKLAND, CA, 2/02/14: Two Bay Area police departments are now investigating the actions of a new officer, an officer whose own father is also in uniform. In San Francisco's Marina District, the IHOP restaurant is open all night over the weekend for partiers to get a late night meal. But at 2:40 last Sunday morning, while talking with a waitress, someone pulled out a gun. "This is an off-duty Oakland Police officer," said San Francisco Police Spokesman, Albie Esparza. The officer has been identified as 24-year-old Kevin Kelly, whose father was a San Francisco Police inspector. Sources tell KTVU he was talking with a waitress, and told her he was an officer while trying to impress her. "My understanding from the victim is that the firearm was brandished at her and towards the sky, or ceiling of the restaurant," added Esparza. It's unclear if Kelly pointed the gun at the waitress, but the incident spooked her so she told her coworkers, who called police.
15. SHELBY, NC, 2/03/13: A man accidentally shot himself in the foot Monday afternoon at J&D Furniture Inc. on North Lafayette Street in Shelby, according to Shelby Police at the scene. The man, an employee of the furniture store, had a gun in his back pocket that went off and the shot hit him in the foot, said Lt. Steven Seate with the Shelby Police Department. The victim was injured, but it was not life-threatening, police said.
16. TUCSON, AZ, 2/03/14: Tucson Police Department responded to a shots fired call at CubeSmart Storage on the northwest side. The facility is located at 519 E. Prince Rd., near First Avenue. The shooting was accidental, according to Officer Brandon Tatum. Bullets reportedly traveled through two storage units and hit a person on the other end. The victim was taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
17. SAVANNAH, GA, 2/03/14: Police in Savannah say charges have been filed against a man who accidentally shot himself in one of his fingers. Authorities say 23-year-old Alajuawon Williams was arrested after being discharged from the Memorial University Medical Center Monday afternoon because police determined the gun he shot himself with was stolen. Investigators say Williams told them he was checking to see if the weapon was loaded when he accidentally pulled the trigger. The man has been charged with theft and receiving stolen property. It's unclear if he has an attorney.
18. BEDFORD TOWNSHIP, MI, 2/03/14: A Bedford Township man mistakenly shot himself in the leg while relaxing at home Saturday evening. The bullet entered his right thigh, just above the knee. He was sitting on the couch next to an adult family member at the time. He was taken to a Toledo hospital. The man told Sheriff ’s deputies he has a concealed pistols license and was carrying the gun in his waistband during the day. The police report has been sent to CPL board.
19. SCOTTDALE, PA, 2/03/14: A Scottdale man is recovering after police say he shot himself through his left hand while playing with a handgun at his mother's home in East Huntingdon Township, Westmoreland County. State police Trooper David J. McClintock said the 24-year-old man was playing video games after smoking marijuana and using heroin around 1:45 a.m. Monday when he decided to take out a Sig Sauer 9mm handgun he had recently purchased. McClintock said that the man loaded the handgun and then let his finger slip from the hammer while trying to lower the hammer and caused the gun to discharge. The bullet passed through the man's left hand and broke several bones, police said. According to McClintock, the man was first treated at Excela Health-Frick Hospital in Mount Pleasant before being transferred to UPMC-Presbyterian hospital in Pittsburgh for additional care.
20. BUNNELL, FL, 2/03/14: 2:23 p.m. 200 block of Airport Road. Shots fired, non criminal Three Florida Highway Patrol troopers were out for lunch, seated on the deck of a local restaurant, when they heard a loud gunshot. The troopers bolted from their seats and saw an elderly man standing two or three feet away, looking confused, with a large hole in the cargo pocket of his shorts and the steel muzzle of a handgun protruding from the hole. The troopers took the man’s gun, removed the spent cartridge and a live round of ammunition, and contacted the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office. They told a deputy who arrived at the scene that the elderly man had simply been walking along the sidewalk — he wasn’t handling the gun, and didn’t have his hands in his pockets — when the gun went off. The deputy spoke to the elderly man, who said he didn’t know why the gun had fired. He repeatedly told the deputy he’d left the safety on, and that there was nothing else in his pocket that could’ve snagged the trigger. But he also said he’d had hammer cocked back on the loaded gun, and acknowledged that he'd been carrying it loosely in the cargo pocket of his shorts without a holster. The deputy, searching for fragments of the discharged bullet, determined that it had struck the ground, then ricocheted into a picnic table and through the restaurant’s cloth awning. The man had a concealed carry permit from North Carolina, also valid in Florida. The deputy submitted the man’s Cobra .38 handgun as evidence, and told him how to reclaim it later.
21. HUGER, SC, 2/04/14: Charleston County sheriff's deputies are investigating a 25-year-old man's report that he accidentally shot himself when he fell out of a deer stand early Tuesday. The shooting occurred around 1:30 a.m. near Halfway Creek Road in Huger, according to an incident report. Authorities located a Mount Pleasant man at the scene who had at least two pellets lodged in his upper arm. He told deputies he received the wound when he fell out of a deer stand while holding a 20-gauge shotgun. His cousin, a 24-year-old woman, told investigators the wounded man was bleeding from his head when he walked up to her house and asked her for a ride to the hospital. He was later airlifted to a hospital for treatment, deputies said. Authorities searched the home and the nearby deer stand, but did not locate the shotgun, according to the report. The incident remains under investigation.
22. BARROW, AK, 2/04/14:  A 13-year-old boy died of a gunshot wound in Barrow Tuesday afternoon, police said. About 3:40 p.m., the North Slope Borough Police Department received a report that the teen had shot himself at 5210 Karluk Street. Officers who responded found the boy dead of an apparent gunshot wound to the head. An initial investigation suggested he may have been accidentally shot by another juvenile, Barrow police said in a statement. A police spokesman, Darryl E. Holman, declined to answer further questions Wednesday afternoon.
23. YOUNGSTOWN, FL, 2/05/14: Bay County investigators say a local man shot and killed his wife's boyfriend and shot his wife leaving her in critical, but stable condition in a local hospital. The incident happened at about 2:30 a.m. Wednesday morning at 8505 Rhonda Road. According to a news release Michael McCoy, 43, shot his wife, Susan McCoy, 37, and David Walker, 46, after discovering the two were romantically involved.  Michael McCoy, who suffers from physical disabilities and has difficulty walking, took out a handgun to commit suicide but his wife was able to calm him down. Michael McCoy demanded Walker leave and all three were in the front yard outside the home when Walker and Michael McCoy began a verbal disagreement. During the argument Michael McCoy shot Walker multiple times, killing him. Michael McCoy, was waiting at the scene when investigators arrived and told them that his wife was accidentally shot trying to prevent the killing. She is in a local hospital.
24. BIRMINGHAM, AL, 2/05/14: Talk about a bad day. Authorities say a Birmingham man not only botched a robbery and kidnapping, but he also accidentally shot himself in the process early Wednesday. Raphael Darnelle Roman, 28, was arrested Wednesday morning by Jefferson County sheriff's deputies. Chief Deputy Randy Christian gave this account of what happened: Deputies were dispatched just after midnight to reports of gunfire in the area of Candy Mountain Apartments off of Carson Road. When they arrived, they found Roman walking near the 900 building. They first asked him about shots being fired, and then asked him if he was armed. He took off running, and dropped a handgun as he fled. After a short foot chase, deputies caught up to him. He told them he had been shot in the leg by a man in the woods. Paramedics came to the scene to treat his injury. He was taken to a local hospital to have his leg wound treated, and then was taken to the Jefferson County Jail.During questioning, Roman admitted he accidentally shot himself. He remains in the Jefferson County Jail with bond set at $126,000.
25. MOUNT OLIVE, NJ, 2/05/14: Police and the prosecutor’s office are investigating the circumstances around what appears to be the accidental discharge of a weapon by an off-duty federal law enforcement officer. Township police responded to the Oakwood Village apartment complex about 3 p.m. Wednesday and said at the time there was “an active investigation” at the scene but no danger to the public. Acting Morris County Prosecutor Fredric M. Knapp and Mount Olive Police Chief Mark Spitzer issued a statement saying the officer apparently discharged a weapon while cleaning it. No one was injured. The Morris County Prosecutor’s Office confirmed that the officer was a U.S. Department of Defense employee.
26. MINT HILL, NC, 2/05/14: A man is in jail after police say a gun fell out of his pocket into plain view inside a fast food restaurant in Mint Hill. CMPD arrested Demario White at the McDonald's on Lawyers road. White is being charged with carrying a concealed weapon without a permit and for possession of marijuana. On Wednesday night, a customer called 911 after the gun fell out of his pocket and onto the counter. One local resident says, permit or no permit, McDonald's is no place for a gun. When police showed up, they say they smelled pot on White and found other drug paraphernalia. Authorities say they do not think White had any intention of robbing the place.
27. PUYALLUP, WA, 2/06/14: Neighbors say they never heard a gunshot, but saw what happened next. “The young man was sitting in the driveway just rocking back and forth saying; I shot my best friend, I shot my best friend,” neighbor Carol Sharick said. A 911 call reporting shots fired brought police to this small house in the 500 block of 11th Street Southeast just after 3pm Thursday afternoon. “Upon the arrival of our officers they located a subject, a juvenile, inside the residence that had been shot in the chest. There was also another juvenile inside the residence attempting to provide first aid for him,” Puyallup Police Captain Scott Engle said. Paramedics arrived and did what they could, sadly though, the boy died a short time later. “Ah, how horrible, how very horrible. Everyone in the neighborhood is upset by this,” Sharick said. Police say five boys were in the house hanging out after school, the boy who lived in the house brought out a shotgun, it was loaded and somehow went off striking the 13-year-old boy in the chest. Police say three of the boys left the home and had to be rounded up. All are said to be cooperating with the investigation. Police and neighbors call the shooting senseless, totally avoidable and a tragedy that did not have to happen.
28. FREDERICK, MD, 2/06/14: City police are investigating an accidental shooting that happened Thursday evening. The shooting happened around 5:20 pm at 90 Waverly Drive. When police arrived to the scene, they found one male victim with a gunshot wound to the leg. He was taken to Meritus Medical Center with non-life threatening injuries. Police say the suspect, Oscar Vasquez, was the roommate of the victim. The two were handling a gun they found earlier, and when Vasquez held the gun in a negligent way it caused the gun to off. Vasquez has been charged with reckless endangerment and discharging a firearm in city limits. He's currently being held at the Frederick County Adult Detention Center. Police believe this was an isolated situation. [Ed. note: Oh yeah?] UPDATE: Two men have been arrested on drug charges at the same location of an accidental shooting Thursday. Just before midnight, officers with the Frederick Police Department noticed a suspicious vehicle at 90 Waverly Drive. Raymond Wall and Rendell Johnson were in the car with 20 bags of marijuana and thirteen capsules of heroin. Both were arrested for possession of drugs and intent to distribute. This comes just hours after a gun was discharged wounding one person at the same location.
29. SHELBY, NC, 2/06/14: Deputies are investigating after a 17-month-old baby was shot by his or her sibling in a Cleveland County home on Thursday, according to the sheriff's office. The sheriff's office said the child was admitted to Carolina's Medical Center for observation after being shot by his or her 3-year-old sibling. Deputies said the shooting appears to be accidental but they are continuing to investigate. The child's name or condition have not been released. Officials have not said how the child accessed the gun. UPDATE: The shooting was said to be an accident after the 3-year-old son, Jaron, got ahold of his father Justin Carper's gun which was lying on a dresser in the family's Shelby, North Carolina home. Mr Carper is a parenting and self-help columnist for the local paper in addition to running a car dealership.
30. FLATHEAD CO., MT, 2/06/14: A man was treated at a Farm to Market Road urgent care clinic after he accidentally shot himself with a .32-caliber firearm.
31. MUNCIE, IN, 2/06/14: Police investigators on Friday were trying to determine exactly how a 15-year-old Muncie boy was shot in the leg Thursday evening. The victim — whose identity is not being released because he’s a juvenile — was taken to IU Health Ball Memorial Hospital with what Muncie police Sgt. Mike Engle was considering an immediately non-life-threatening gunshot wound. The incident was reported just after 8 p.m. at 1705 S. Jefferson St. According to Engle, “there were several juveniles all together in the house” when the victim, who was sitting on a couch, was shot in the leg. “He heard a loud noise,” Engle said, “and he didn’t even realize he had been shot in the leg.” The cause of the shooting was under investigation Thursday. Engle said a suspect “fled the scene,” and that an adult was in another room when the shot was fired, but “didn’t see anything.” “It’s still wide open as far as confirming the stories,” Muncie police Lt. Steve Cox said Friday afternoon. “We’re confirming everybody’s version as far as what exactly happened.” Cox said it’s possible the shooting was not malicious, and that the children were playing with a gun when it accidentally went off Thursday evening. “It’s something we’re looking at, but I can’t confirm that,” he said. “We’re too far from it right now. We’re keeping all different scenarios on the table, looking at all of them.”
32. ALAKANUK, AK, 2/06/14:  An Alakanuk teenager was shot in the leg while walking home from a rabbit hunt Thursday, and troopers say they have no idea who fired at him, or why. The 15-year-old was walking alone near the Yukon River at about 6:30 p.m. on Thursday when he was shot in the left calf, the Alaska State Troopers said in an online dispatch. The wound appeared to be from a .22-caliber firearm, troopers said. Troopers at an outpost St. Mary's weren't notified until 11 a.m. the next day, according to the dispatch. The wound was minor, said AST spokeswoman Beth Ipsen. "Troopers do not believe he accidentally shot himself," Ipsen said. "But we still don't know exactly what happened." The boy was taken to Bethel for treatment and released, she said. UPDATE: Alaska State Troopers say an Alakanuk teenager accidentally shot himself in his leg while walking along the Yukon River Thursday night, receiving minor injuries. While a Saturday dispatch had reported that the incident was under investigation as a shooting, an update this week indicated that troopers had reached a different conclusion. "After an extensive investigation, and reinterview with the 15-year-old on (Monday), it was determined that this was a self-inflicted gunshot wound from a hunting accident," troopers wrote.
33. BOSTON, MA, 2/07/14: An 11-year-old boy was shot and killed in his home in Mattapan on Friday morning in what Boston police believe to be a “terrible tragedy.” The shooting happened around 11:30 a.m. at 617 Morton Street, which the city website indicates is in Dorchester, but police say is in Mattapan. Boston EMS reported that the victim suffered a single gunshot wound to the chest. He was rushed to Boston Medical Center where he was pronounced dead. The victim has not yet been identified. Police believe the victim’s older brother pulled the trigger. Officers say that boy, a 14-year-old, apparently panicked and took off running after the shooting. He was taken into police custody a short time later. Police have recovered the gun involved in the shooting. The victim’s mother was also being interviewed by police detectives on Friday afternoon. Officials indicated they were investigating why the boys were not in school and why the gun was in the home. No charges have been filed at this point. UPDATE: He was just 9, not 11.
34. SAN FRANCISCO, CA, 2/07/14: An allegedly intoxicated man accidentally shot himself in the leg in San Francisco’s Bayview District early Friday morning, police said. The 24-year-old man was under the influence of alcohol and shot himself in the leg at about 2:20 a.m. inside his home in the first block of Whitfield Court, according to police. His girlfriend took him to San Francisco General Hospital to be treated for the injury, which is not life-threatening, police said.
35. HUNTSVILLE, AL, 2/07/14: A Huntsville child accidentally shot Friday evening. It happened in the 700 block of Charlotte Drive. Huntsville Police say the boy was accidentally shot while his father was trying to unload his pistol. The 6 year old was hit above his left collar bone. Officials say his injuries are not life threatening.

Originally posted to David Waldman on Wed Feb 12, 2014 at 03:46 PM PST.