A Texas county commissioner is facing a child abuse charge in Nebraska after accidentally shooting his 12-year-old grandson during a wedding he was officiating.
The shooting happened Saturday evening at a wedding being held outdoors near the small town of Denton in southeastern Nebraska, when Michael Gardner, 62, of Odessa, Texas, pulled out a revolver, intending to fire a blank round into the air to signal the start of the ceremony, according to a Lancaster County Sheriff's Office press conference on Monday.
As he was cocking the gun's hammer, it "slipped" and hit the boy just below his left shoulder, Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Ben Houchin said.
“I really don't know exactly what happened,” Gardner told The Associated Press on Wednesday from Beatrice, Nebraska, where he's been staying since the incident. “I've been around guns all my life, and I've never had anything like this happen.”
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Gardner, an Ecto County Commissioner in Texas, said he was officiating the wedding of his nephew at an outdoor venue about 10 miles southwest of the capital city of Lincoln. Gardner said he made the blank round himself, using an empty shell, some black gunpowder and hot glue to hold it together. It was the dried glue that hit the boy and caused the injury, officials believe.
A news release from law enforcement said Gardner fired the gun to get the attention of people attending the wedding, but Gardner said that's a mischaracterization.
“The gun was scripted into the wedding,” Gardner explained. “The gun was fired to signal the music to start and for the bride to start her march down the aisle.”
The boy was taken by ambulance to a Lincoln hospital, then to Children's Hospital in Omaha, where he received stitches and was released. He's expected to fully recover.
Gardner said he was with the child for all of it.
“I never left his side,” Gardner said. “There is nobody who feels worse about this than I do. I'm not sure I'll ever get over it.”
Gardner turned himself in Monday to the Lancaster County Sheriff's Office and was arrested on a charge of child abuse for neglectable firing of a firearm and injuring someone, Houchin said at the press conference.
Gardner was booked and posted a $1,000 bond to be released from jail.
“Just another example that playing with firearms — no matter what, even if they’re blanks — bad things can certainly happen,” Houchin said. "We do not believe Michael intended to hurt his grandchild, but the act was not very smart.”
Gardner is three years into his first term as Ecto County Commissioner and has plans to seek reelection next year.
“Politically, whatever happens, happens,” he said. “And I'll live with that. I would never make excuses for what happened. The responsibility lies with me.”
