Cathleen Allison/Nevada Appeal
A Carson City man preparing to go to the gun range said his shotgun accidentally fired Thursday, sending a bullet into his next-door neighbor's home.
Dave Forbes said he was unloading his Savage model 775 semi-automatic 12-gauge shotgun at his home on Sierra Lane about 12:30 p.m.
"I let go of the bolt and it just fired. I didn't even have my finger on the trigger," a disbelieving Forbes said as he stood in front of his shattered sliding glass window. "I'm an NRA member, and this gun accidentally fired."
The bullet pierced his neighbor's bedroom wall, passed through a chest of drawers and went through the wall into the bathroom.
The 85-year-old neighbor was unharmed.
"It was an accident," said Forbes. "It was truly stupid, but it was nowhere intentional."
He said he had had the gun for about 16 years had been having trouble with it recently.
"It wouldn't always feed ... so I don't know why I tried to do anything with it," he said.
Then Forbes pointed to the shotgun that he had sawed in half shortly after the incident.
"If I can't trust it, it doesn't exist anymore," he said.