Local news reports
A Utah teacher who was injured by fragments from a bullet and a porcelain toilet when her gun accidentally went off in a faculty bathroom at an elementary school has been charged with a misdemeanor and resigned from her job.
The charges came earlier this month after she changed her story about what happened in the Sept. 11 shooting. Detectives had confronted her about discrepancies, charging documents show.
Michelle Montgomery, 39, was charged earlier this month with discharge of a firearm in a prohibited area within city limits, court records show. She is scheduled to be in court on Nov. 5 for a pretrial conference.
She first told investigators that her gun accidentally went off when it was in her holster while she was in the bathroom stall, charging documents show.
However, that story didn't jibe with evidence gathered from the scene.
At a second interview, detectives confronted her about the inconsistencies, and she provided a new account. Montgomery said she had put the gun on top of the toilet paper dispenser. After she was done going to the bathroom, she grabbed the gun to put it back in her holster, but it slipped and went off, she told detectives according to the charging documents.
The bullet struck a toilet, causing it to explode, and fragments from the bullet and toilet struck her lower leg.
Montgomery was facing discipline for violating school policy but was not going to be fired, Horsley said. But on Thursday, Montgomery informed the district she would not be coming back to her position as a sixth-grade teacher at Westbrook Elementary School in the Salt Lake City suburb of Taylorsville.
She said she was taking another job closer to where she lives, Horsley said. Montgomery was a teacher at Westbrook for 14 years.
"After she was done going to the bathroom, she grabbed the gun to put it back in her holster, but it slipped and went off, she told detectives according to the charging documents."
ReplyDeleteThat's code for she didn't grasp it firmly and her finger was on the trigger. This doesn't really sound different than the times you hear of the same thing happening with police officers. So she's being charged with an offence, had to pay medical bills, likely has to pay to repair the damage, and had been asked to leave.
Throw in the attorney fees she'll be paying and it doesn't sound like a slap on the wrist.
But the dangerous idiot gets to keep her gun.
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