Police in Scottsbluff, Nebraska, responded to an unusual call on Saturday after someone reported that a person had been shot at a convenience store.
At first, the officers believed that someone had shot a person with a BB gun at 12:07 p.m. at the Short Stop convenience store at 2002 Avenue I. However, while en route to the scene of the shooting, they were informed that it was actually a shotgun that had been fired. They would later learn that a dog had accidentally fired the shotgun.
According to Scottsbluff police and KNOP News, officers were directed to a truck with a camper attached when they arrived at the scene. Upon inspection, they found that the truck’s passenger-side door panel had sustained damage consistent with a shotgun blast.
The truck’s owner reportedly pulled into the convenience store with a dog in the back seat, according to the police. When the pup shifted from one side of the vehicle to the other, the dog triggered a shotgun with a live shell in the chamber.
A woman with her arm resting on her car’s open window was stopped at the Avenue I traffic light at the moment the shotgun fired. The shotgun blast hit her in the upper right arm. A family member drove her to Regional West Medical Center for treatment. Her condition is unclear, but authorities did not believe the injury to be life-threatening.
A Scottsbluff Police Department spokesman told a local radio station that the incident is under investigation. They also reminded the public that the state of Nebraska prohibits having a loaded shotgun inside a vehicle.
It is illegal to have a shotgun with shells in the chamber, receiver, or magazine inside or on a vehicle traveling on a highway, according to Nebraska Revised Statute 37-522. Violations are a Class III misdemeanor.
BroBible has reached out to the Scottsbluff Police Department for comment and more information.