A Texas county commissioner will spend one year on probation for accidentally shooting his grandson during a Nebraska wedding he was officiating.
Michael Gardner, 63, of Odessa, Texas, was sentenced Monday for misdemeanor child abuse in the September 2023 shooting. His grandson, then 12, survived the shoulder wound.
“It’s something I’ll have to deal with for the rest of my life,” said Gardner, who was recently reelected as a county commissioner in Ector County in Texas.
The shooting happened when Gardner pulled out a revolver, intending to fire a blank round into the air to signal the start of the outdoor ceremony near the small town of Denton in southeastern Nebraska. But as he was cocking the gun’s hammer, it fired, hitting the now 13-year-old boy.
On the one hand, firing a blank in the air is harmless. On the other hand, how fucking close was he that the kid was as injured as he was from the blank?
It was a homemade blank, using hot glue to “hold it all together”. I’m guessing the poor kid got a plug of hot glue in his shoulder.