Drunk man accidentally fires shotgun in store
Sep. 28—An intoxicated man accidentally fired off a shotgun inside Carolina Gun and Ammo in Waynesville Friday evening when trying to empty a live round from the chamber, setting off a chain of events that eventually ended in a DWI arrest.
The man came into the gun store hoping to trade-in two shotguns to buy a pistol.
"The shotguns were apparently loaded, and when he was trying to unload one of them, it went off," said Waynesville Assistant Police Chief Brandon Gilmore.
The stray bullet shot through the glass of the front door.
"We thank the good Lord no one got hurt," said Ronnie Parton, co-owner of Carolina Gun and Ammo.
The man most likely racked the shotgun to unload it, which cocked the gun in the process.
"That's not the safest way to do it," Gilmore said. "In the process, he somehow pulled the trigger."
Employees quietly called the police to report the gun going off. When the call was dispatched, it went out on the radio and was picked up over a police scanner in the store.
The man heard the call to Carolina Gun dispatched over the scanner, got spooked and fled. Police quickly found his vehicle and stopped him, and he blew a .13 blood alcohol level, Gilmore said.
The man, Jason Holland, was charged with a DWI charge, as well as property damage and discharging a firearm in the city limits.
While Holland was released until his trial, Waynesville police officers asked the magistrate judge require a CAM bracelet — or Continuous Alcohol Monitoring device — that detects blood alcohol level.
