Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Tennessee Woman - Concealed Carry Permit Holder - Charged After Errant Bullet Nearly Strikes Child

Local news reports via Southern Beale

An argument between a woman and her fiancé ended with a gun going off, just barely missing a young child.

Officials with the Metro Nashville Police Department said 26-year-old Theresa Steward and her fiancé were arguing Friday night in the driveway of their home on Blairfield Drive.

During the course of the fight, investigators said Steward pulled out her pistol.

After things cooled off, she was pulling the gun back into its holster when it went off. The bullet went flying out of her car and shattered the window of a nearby vehicle.

A child happened to be in that car. Officials said the child was not hit with the bullet, but glass from the shattered window got into the child’s eye.

Steward was placed under arrest and charged with aggravated child endangerment of a child under 8 years old. She was booked into the Davidson County Criminal Justice Center and later released.

There was no word on the condition of the child.

4 comments:

  1. Thinking that maybe this dewd who proposed to such a lovely, young gun enthusiast may be having second thoughts about hitching their wagons together for the long haul. Not exactly romantic brandishing on your sweetums.

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    1. Howdy FJ. I was holding off on this one since there really isn't much information about the event. However, you comment about the "dewd" brought to mind a question.
      If they were having some sort of verbal disagreement and she pulls a gun on the "dewd", then that could be considered aggravated assault, or an even easier charge would be disorderly conduct or even possibly a domestic assault charge.
      Yet, we don't seem to be seeing any of these charges come up. So why is that? One possibility of course is that they will get tacked on at the preliminary hearing on April 6th. Another possibility of course is that since we don't know any real details about the argument, it could be that he was an active participant in the argument and possibly pushed things to where Ms. Steward was justified in drawing and warning him.
      She's still on the hook for the negligent discharge, and rightfully so in my opinion. The same argument could possibly be made in the other direction. If the "dewd" escalates an argument to the point where she has to threaten deadly force, then best to part company before it happens again and blood is shed.
      Perhaps we'll find out more after the 6th, though I'm guessing it will fall under the media's radar by being classified as old news.

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    2. I believe that a woman would have a right to protect herself with a firearm if she was being physically assaulted. But if that had been the case, the young man would have gone to jail as well. If it's only harsh words, shouting and yelling, it's not appropriate to brandish a gun. I'm thinking aggravated child endangerment is a more serious charge than the ones you mentioned.

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    3. "Yet, we don't seem to be seeing any of these charges come up. "

      Well, in Jersey you'd expect to see charges, tout suite. But in Tennessee, ???

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