Neighbor's shotgun blast injures Southbridge woman

DUMFRIES, Va. - A Dumfries woman was flown to a trauma center Thursday afternoon suffering severe facial injuries after a shotgun blast.

Police are not sure if the 42-year-old victim was hit with pieces of buckshot, glass or debris, but she was injured while standing on the back deck of her house in the 17000 block Hampstead Ridge Court.

The shotgun went off when an unidentified 48-year-old man was practicing loading and unloading it, said Prince William police spokesman Jonathan Perok.

After leaving through the bedroom wall, the shot went through the exterior wall of the victim's home and came out the back.

The buckshot also damaged a third house next to the victim's.

"Once the shot was fired, he immediately went next door to see if everyone was OK," said Perok.

The man found the wounded woman and called 911. He was not charged Thursday afternoon, but authorities did not rule out the possibility.

The extent of the woman's injuries was not released, but she was flown by helicopter from the scene. She was conscious at the time.

The shooter was the only one inside his house when the gun went off. Inside the victim's home were three adults -- her sister and parents, said Perok. No one was inside the third home.

A Prince William police officer who was first on the scene found the victim bleeding and applied pressure to her wounds.

"Police officers have to respond and have to deal with the situation as it presents itself. And anyone who has been injured, especially from a potential gunshot wound, whether it be a handgun or shotgun, the importance is for the victim, to make sure the victim is safe," said Perok.

A field at Swans Creek Elementary School on Wayside Drive served as the landing site for the helicopter that flew the victim to the hospital. Teachers and students at the school were asked to remain inside the building during the landing.

Little was known Thursday afternoon about the victim, the neighbor with the shotgun or their families.

One neighbor who declined to identify herself said the shooter and his family have been through hard times as of late. But she described them as "a nice family that lives in a nice home."

Ivy Teteault arrived home Thursday after the shooting, and said this is the second shooting in the neighborhood in recent years. Teteault said a man picked up his police officer wife's handgun and shot and killed himself with it four years ago, just a few houses away.

The sight of police cars once again sitting on their street is not something she wanted her 14-year-old daughter to see when she returned home from school, she said.

Members of the local homeowners' association were also stunned by the shooting.

"The Southbridge community is praying for the full recovery of the victim of today's accidental shooting," said association President Jim Riley. "The swift cooperation between officials at Swans Creek Elementary School and rescue personnel that enabled a medical helicopter to land on school grounds and airlift the victim to the hospital is to be commended."

Staff writer Uriah A. Kiser can be reached at 703-878-8065.