September 17, 2019
Lewiston-Auburn Latest News | Farmington Explosion | Bangor Metro | Homelessness | Today's Paper

He thought he was hit by a rock while mowing his lawn. Police say he was shot with pellet gun.

Dreamstime | TNS
Dreamstime | TNS

A Livermore Falls man was shot on two different occasions by a pellet gun while he was mowing his lawn, police said.

The Sun Journal reports that the 52-year-old man, who was not identified, was shot in the right forearm Sunday and in the leg Wednesday. The man thought at first he had been hit with a rock while mowing his lawn during the Wednesday shooting.

The man did not initially report the shootings to police, but when he was still in pain Sunday, he went to the hospital, where X-rays found pellets beneath his skin, the newspaper reports.

Livermore Falls police Chief Ernest Steward Jr. told the newspaper that an investigation revealed the 52-year-old’s mower also had been hit with four pellets.

Though BB and pellet guns are sometimes considered nonlethal, they can cause severe injury — and in some cases death.

In 2016, a Nobleboro man pleaded guilty to fatally shooting his 6-month-old fox terrier with a pellet gun. In January 2012, a 28-year-old Percheron-Appaloosa cross gelding living on an Old Town farm was near death after a facial wound from a BB gun became infected and the infection spread. The horse later recovered.

It’s not just animals that can suffer serious injury from BB and pellet guns.

A 9-year-old Naples boy was left partially paralyzed after he was shot in the head with a pellet gun. The boy’s uncle, who was inebriated and seated on a deck with the gun across his lap when it discharged while the boy was 5 feet away, was charged with elevated aggravated assault in the shooting.

In July 2018, a 19-year-old from Skowhegan, who was in critical condition at a Bangor hospital after being shot in the head with a pellet gun, had just been read his last rites when he began to move. The pellet had entered through his right temple and pierced his brain, where it was expected to remain lodged. The 19-year-old’s friend, who was accused of pulling the trigger, has been charged with elevated aggravated assault and aggravated assault, according to the Waterville Morning Sentinel.

The Livermore Falls police chief told the Sun Journal that pellet gun shootings are considered aggravated assault, punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $20,000 fine.

The case remains under investigation.


You may also like