Texas Grandfather Shoots Grandson at Wedding, Ceremony Continues

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A Texas man has been charged with felony child abuse after he accidentally shot his grandson at a wedding he was officiating in Nebraska.

Michael Gardner of Odessa, who serves as a County Commissioner for Ector County, was officiating his nephew's wedding in Nebraska. The gun was supposed to be part of the wedding ceremony according to a report from NBCDFW. The plan was to fire the gun, using a blank, to summon the bride and start the music so she could walk down the aisle.

According to the Washington Post, it all went wrong. Gardner told the Post that he had made the blank at home with glue. And used a gun he had never fired before.

His plan involved shooting a blank from a revolver into the air to signal to the roughly 200 people gathered on Saturday that the outdoor ceremony, which he was officiating, was about to begin. But when Gardner cocked back the hammer of the gun, it slipped, and the homemade blank that he had used, which was closed off with glue, fired from the Pietta 1860 snub-nose revolver that he had borrowed, he said.

Instead of firing the blank into the air, Gardner hit his 12-year-old grandson in the shoulder.

The wedding continued and the 12-year-old was take to Children's Hospital in Omaha. According to the Washington Post, the Sheriff's Department doesn't believe alcohol played a role and they don't believe Gardner meant to hurt his grandson. However, if convicted of the Class IIIA felony, he could face up to 3 years in prison, a $10,000 fine or both.