Homeowner Fires At Intruder, Shoots Neighbor’s Home

ROCK HILL, SOUTH CAROLINA — A man, in the course of trying to defend his home, accidentally put a bullet into his neighbor’s house, according to The Herald.

Although no one was injured, the accident was also utterly avoidable.

As The Herald reports:

The victim told police he heard someone trying to enter his Scoggins Street home through the back window, so he went to his truck and grabbed his gun, the report says. Police arrested Isaiah Ishmael Hemphill, 20, outside of the Scoggins Street home and charged him with first-degree burglary.

Hemphill was “leaning up against a red pickup truck in the driveway” when police arrived, the report says.

The victim told police someone knocked on several windows, the report says. The victim said his wife called the police while he tried to load his gun in the bedroom, the report says.

He said he accidentally fired a round while loading the gun, and shot through the bedroom wall, through the glass door and into a nearby house… The residents at the neighboring house told police they were in their bedroom when the round came through the window, striking and breaking a mirror, the report says.

No one was injured.

Now, if I had a dollar for every time someone pulled a negligent discharge while trying to load their firearm, I wouldn’t drive a 27-year-old car.

Mistakes happen, and in a suburban or urban environment it is fairly difficult to keep your muzzle pointed in a safe direction.

I’d recommend keeping it pointed at the ground.

But on top of that, of course, is the fact that this man’s firearm shouldn’t have needed loading at the time of the incident.

It should have been ready to go in the first place.

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