HARRIS COUNTY, Texas – A crowded flea market turned into panic Sunday night in Texas after police said a man unintentionally fired a single round, which sent seven people to the hospital.
Jose Manuel Guerrero-Reyes, 25, was charged with aggravated assault causing bodily injury. Police said all the victims are expected to survive.
“At one point he retrieves it [the pistol], has his finger on the trigger and it goes off, shooting the person in front of him,” Harris County Senior Deputy Thomas Gilliand told the Washington Post.
The single bullet struck a 30-year-old man in the thigh around 7 p.m. before ricocheting off the concrete dance floor and fragmenting, striking six adults who suffered minor injuries. Those injured included four men between the ages of 26 and 33 and two women were ages 26 and 43, the paper said.
Guerrero-Reyes told investigators his hand was in his pocket when the gun — which was also in his pocket — discharged by accident, Fox News reported. However, Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said the claims by the suspect didn’t match the evidence.
He also said Guerrero-Reyes had been drinking at the time of the negligent shooting.
“We don’t know if he was fumbling around with the pistol, being irresponsible about it, or if he was actually intending to shoot somebody,” Gonzalez told the Post. “Guns and alcohol aren’t a good mix, especially when he’s not supposed to have a gun in this establishment.”
Furthermore, Gonzelez wondered why someone would bring a firearm to the market that had such a large police presence.
The flea market caterers toward families. It had hundreds of people attending a “live dance” inside the building when the incident occurred.
The sheriff added that Guerrero-Reyes was not connected to the man who was shot first in the thigh, and his motive remains unclear.
