Stray bullet narrowly misses woman
Linda Marshall said a stray bullet made a “horrible, loud” sound when it came through the storm door on her home on Brownfield Road in South Union Township and just missed her as she walked by. The bullet appeared to be a musket ball came from the Hutchinson Sportsmen’s Club’s gun range, which is across the street from her house, she said.
Musket balls are the ammunition used in flintlock rifles and other types of muzzleloaders.
“The bullet came through the door and just missed me,” Marshall said about the Oct. 14 incident. “I was just coming around the corner. It just missed me.
She said the projectile ricocheted off of her wood front door, which was open, went through the glass on the storm door and landed on the living room floor.
Marshall said Terry Bell and another club officer came to her home an apologized for the mishap and offered to pay for the damages.
Bell declined to discuss the matter earlier this week, but said he doubts the bullet came from the club’s range.
“I really don’t feel that bullet came from our range,” Bell said.
State police said the source of the shot was not determined. Trooper Michael Irwin said the bullet did appear to a round from a muzzleloader, but it was undetermined how it hit the house.
He said there was no criminal intent in the incident and Marshall did not want to pursue charges.
Marshall said the range faces her home so people using it shoot in the direction of her and her neighbors’ homes, and she wants the club to move the range so that guns are fired in a safer direction.
She said there have been other cases of stray bullets from the range hitting her and her neighbor’s properties over the years.
Six or seven years ago, a bullet struck and shattered a flowerpot near her husband while he was outside, she said.
A neighbor was carrying a ladder in his yard one day and a bullet hit the ladder, Marshall said.
Along with taking the bill for the door glass to the club, Marshall said she also plans to raise the issue at the next township supervisors’ meeting.