A Juneau man dry firing a 9mm Glock pistol took a practice shot from inside a house on Wednesday, aiming for the front door. He didn’t realize the weapon was in fact loaded and a school bus was passing by outside at the same time, police said.
The Juneau Police Department has identified a 21-year-old man who caused a bullet to lodge itself in a First Student school bus around 4 p.m. on Wednesday in the 9200 block of Sharon Street in the Mendenhall Valley during student drop-offs. Two children, a bus driver and a bus aide were all on the bus, but no injuries were reported, according to a JPD press release.
A window shattered as the bullet passed through to lodge itself on the other side of the bus, but JPD Lt. Kris Sell said the bus driver reported to police that the kids on the bus “didn’t even realize” anything had happened. She also said she did not know the ages or grade level of the students on the bus.
The man who fired the weapon, along with a second unnamed man, immediately ran out of the house where the shot came from and toward the bus, according to the JPD press release.
“It’ not an uncommon technique for people with guns to use, but it takes a number of safety steps,” Sell said about dry firing weapons.
JPD has not arrested the man who fired the weapon, but a recommended charge of shooting a firearm within a quarter mile of a roadway has been forwarded to the City and Borough of Juneau’s attorney’s office. That is a class B misdemeanor, punishable by up to 90 days in jail and/or a $2,000 fine.
An estimated cost of the damage to the bus was not immediately available from anyone at the First Student transportation center.
• Contact reporter Paula Ann Solis at 523-2272 or paula.solis@juneauempire.com.
