Visualize this standing at a checkout line — getting ready to pay — when abruptly, you hear a gunshot, and the bullet goes right through your shirt!
That’s what happened last Saturday night at a Dollar General on Joel Blvd.
Brandon Orlando was standing in the checkout line, when the man standing behind him accidentally dropped his gun on the floor, and it fired.
According to deputies, when the gun hit the floor, it shot off a round. The bullet ricocheted off a conveyor belt and then grazed Orlando’s stomach.
Orlando said it was a painful experience, but he didn’t go to the hospital.
The gun owner, Joseph Lemier, called the sheriff’s office immediately. When a deputy got to the scene, he ran Lemier’s ‘concealed weapons license’ and learned that it had been revoked.
Lemier also claimed that the safety was on, when the gun hit the floor. But upon inspection, the deputy found that the safety was not operational.
“I will be going after him. I will be going after him completely,” Orlando said. “He didn’t have a concealed weapons permit. He also said that the safety was on to the police, so he’s lying to an officer. And he’s lying to me.”
Sheriff’s deputies still don’t know why Lemier’s ‘concealed weapons license’ was revoked — that is now being investigated. Lemier’s gun was also taken as evidence.