(WBBM NEWSRADIO) – A 50-year-old convicted felon is being held on charges that he fired a gun inside a sober-living house in Wood Dale over the weekend, prosecutors said.
Wood Dale police officers were called to the facility Sunday and determined that Charles Starnes was handling a gun around 12:30 a.m. in his room when the firearm discharged into the floor, authorities said.
Officers found a bullet hole in the floor and in the ceiling of the living room below, plus a bullet hole in that room’s floor. At the time of the discharge, seven or eight people were in the home.
Police say they found a 9-mm pistol and a magazine loaded with nine rounds in a cooler in the trunk of Starnes’ car.
“Because of his extensive criminal history including multiple felony convictions, Mr. Starnes is prohibited from legally owning a firearm,” DuPage County State’s Attorney Robert Berlin said in a news release. “What I find particularly troubling in this case is the allegation that Mr. Starnes discharged a firearm inside a home while people were present.”
Starnes was charged with armed habitual criminal, unlawful possession of a weapon by a felon and reckless discharge of a firearm, all felonies. A judge on Monday declined to release him prior to trial, and Starnes’ next court appearance is slated for March 25.
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