Every year, thousands of people in the U.S. are injured in accidental shootings. In rare cases, the trigger is pulled by a paw from man’s best friend rather than a human finger.
This week, CBS News affiliate WREG Memphis reported on such a case. Citing the Memphis Police Department in Tennessee, the outlet said a man claimed he was shot by his own dog while lying in bed early Monday morning.
It was just before 4 a.m. when the department responded to the scene on the 700 block of Whitney Avenue in the city. That’s where Jerald Kirkwood told police he was lying in bed with his female friend when his dog – a 1-year-old pit bull named Oreo – jumped on the bed.
The dog allegedly got his paw stuck in the trigger guard of a gun and hit the firearm’s trigger. Kirkwood’s left thigh was grazed by the bullet, said WREG’s report. He was taken to Regional One Health in non-critical condition.
“Reports say the female friend left the scene after the accidental shooting and took the gun with her,” said the outlet. A friend of Kirkwood called the incident a “freak accident,” and said that Oreo is a very friendly dog.
When a WREG reporter visited the house Monday they were told the victim was not there but that the dog was.
Back in 2020, Audacy reported on another case where a canine accidentally shot a man, that time in Plano, Texas. Like the Memphis incident, the dog allegedly got its paw stuck in the gun’s trigger.
In the Plano case, the man picked up the dog while the gun was in his waistband. It fired into his thigh – he was taken to the hospital and survived.
“Always assume the weapon is loaded and treat it as such,” said local police after that incident.
According to the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University, more than 500 people are killed and thousands more are injured by unintentional shootings every year in the U.S. From 2003 to 2021, “unintentional injury” was “a leading cause of death among U.S. children and adolescents aged 0 -17 years,” and firearms were a leading injury method, per the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Firearm safety tips are available through the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.