FLOSSI: DOG SHOOTS MAN

A dog shot its owner in Tennessee after jumping on a gun trigger, causing it to discharge.

Memphis Police responded to an emergency call from a man who told them he was lying in bed with a gun when his dog jumped up, causing the weapon to fire.

Jerald Kirkwood was in his bedroom when his one-year-old pit bull, Oreo, leapt onto the bed and got his paw stuck in the trigger guard of his gun.

As a result, the gun went off, and a bullet grazed the top of Mr Kirkwood’s left thigh, according to local news station WREG.

Following the incident, a woman who had been in bed with Mr Kirkwood allegedly left the house with the gun, while the injured man was ferried to hospital in a non-critical condition.

The Memphis Police Department said that officers were able to locate “one spent shell casings on the front room floor”, according to People Magazine.

The woman, who was not named, told Fox 13: “The dog is a playful dog, and he likes to jump around and stuff like that, and it just went off.”

Asked whether she was woken by the gunshot or because Oreo jumped on the bed, she told the outlet it was “a combination of the two”.

In future, the woman said she would “keep the safety on or use a trigger lock” to ensure the weapon did not go off and cause further injury.

It is the latest in a long line of incidents in the US in which guns have accidentally been discharged by pets.

Richard Remme, from Iowa, was shot in the leg in 2018 by a gun tucked into his waistband while playing with his pit bull-labrador cross-breed, the Guardian reported.

In 2019, Matt Branch, a former Louisiana State University football player, had to have his leg amputated and spent 12 days in a coma after his black labrador stepped on a shotgun while out hunting, shooting him in the leg.

“I was happy to be alive rather than mad I lost my leg,” Mr Branch told Mississippi’s Clarion Ledger.

And in 2023:
A Kansas hunter has been shot dead by his own dog after it accidentally stepped on the trigger of his rifle.

Joseph Smith, 30, was in the front passenger seat of his truck in Geuda Springs near the Oklahoma border, late Saturday while his dog was in the back with hunting gear, including a rifle.

“A canine belonging to the owner of the pick-up stepped on the rifle causing the weapon to discharge,” said the Sumner County Sheriff’s Office.

“The fired round struck the passenger who died of his injuries on scene.”

With thanks to The Telegraph