Christmas Eve did not go well for a Bar Nunn man who was trying to unload a bolt-action .308 rifle prior to the arrival Santa when it accidentally went off.
Nobody was hurt, but the bullet landed on the kitchen floor of a neighbor.
Natrona County Sheriff’s Office deputies responded to a complaint in the 1900 block of Zuni Trail shortly after 11 a.m. Sunday. A woman reported a shot was fired from a neighbor’s home and a bullet came through her roof.
When deputies investigated the neighbor, he initially denied the incident, then confessed that he was removing bullets from the rifle and thought they were all out of the weapon. He pulled the trigger to “take the tension off the firing pin.”
The gun fired.
The bullet went through his living room wall and bathroom drywall, according to the incident report. It then went through the roof of a neighbor’s house and came to rest on the kitchen floor.
“He called the (neighbor) to ask if everyone was OK,” the report states.
The man initially hid the gun in his basement, thinking he was going to jail. He then showed deputies the weapon and the bullets he had removed from it, as well as the empty casing.
Deputies recovered the spent bullet on the kitchen floor of the neighbor’s home, who did not want to press charges.
“Deputies believe the firearm was accidentally discharged and no criminal charges were pursued,” the report states.
Dale Killingbeck can be reached at dale@cowboystatedaily.com.
