A woman in Wisconsin accidentally shot her friend when she foolishly used the laser sight on a handgun to play with a cat.
A criminal complaint charging the 19-year-old woman with negligent use of a weapon said she was visiting a Kenosha apartment recently where a 21-year-old man had brought a handgun.
The woman, identified as Jashanti Pleasant, who a witness said had been drinking, picked up the handgun, “turned on the laser sight and was pointing it at the floor to get the cat to chase it,” when the gun went off!
“Pleasant turned on the laser sight and was pointing it at the floor to get a cat to chase it,” police wrote in the probable cause affidavit.
As Pleasant was pointing the 9mm gun between the floor and Daniels’ legs, Daniels told the woman, “Hey, let me get that.” The gun then went off, and a witness told police that Daniels stood in shock for a moment before asking Pleasant if she just shot him.
Daniels, who was standing in a doorway, was shot in the thigh, authorities said. He left and went into another apartment, where police found him after responding to a 911 call, the Kenosha News reported.
The responding officers tied a tourniquet to his leg to stop the bleeding before he was taken to a hospital. He told officers he had removed the magazine from the handgun before the incident took place, according to police.
Pleasant said Daniels had allowed her to “play” with the gun, and she also thought it wasn’t loaded at the time, police said. But an officer who recovered the gun found it had one bullet in the chamber and six in the magazine.
“If the magazine had not been inserted into the gun when Ms. Pleasant fired the shot, there would have been no round in the chamber later when the gun was found,” police said. “(The officer) determined that the bullet went through Mr. Daniels’ leg and then through a wall into the kitchen, where it hit the back of the stove.”
Pleasant called the shooting an accident, and she apologized to Daniels, who she said forgave her, according to the complaint. She was charged with injury by negligent handling of a dangerous weapon.
There’s no word on Daniels’ current condition, but authorities said he was facing charges for violating bond conditions that prevented him from having a weapon.
The woman told police she thought the magazine had been taken out of the gun and said it “accidentally went off,” according to the complaint.
I guess the cat involved in the incident is happy to still have all of his or her 9 lives.