A man in Tennessee claims he was shot by his dog after the pet’s paw got stuck in a gun’s trigger guard, police say.
The dog, a pit bull puppy named Oreo, “jumped on the bed and got his paw stuck in the trigger guard and ended up hitting the trigger” while the man was “relaxing” and “talking” with a female friend in the early morning hours on Monday, the Memphis Police Department wrote in a press release obtained by several media outlets.
A bullet grazed the man atop his left thigh, according to local news station WREG, citing police.
The man was taken to hospital in non-critical condition and treated for his injury, while the woman, Fox 13 reports, left the house and took the gun with her.
Officers said they found “one spent shell casing on the front room floor.”
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“Keep the safety on or use a trigger lock,” the woman said after the shooting, which police classified as an accidental injury requiring no action against Oreo or his owner, according to Fox 13.
The Memphis Police Department encourages gun owners to use gun locks when storing their guns.
The Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security urges gun owners to “treat every firearm as if it were loaded” and to store firearms and ammunition separately “so that they are not accessible to children or other unauthorized persons.”
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