Feb 6, 2014 1 min read

A Scottdale man is recovering after police say he shot himself through his left hand while playing with a handgun at his mother’s home in East Huntingdon Township, Westmoreland County.

State police Trooper David J. McClintock said the 24-year-old man was playing video games after smoking marijuana and using heroin around 1:45 a.m. Monday when he decided to take out a Sig Sauer 9mm handgun he had recently purchased.

McClintock said that the man loaded the handgun and then let his finger slip from the hammer while trying to lower the hammer and caused the gun to discharge.

The bullet passed through the man’s left hand and broke several bones, police said.

According to McClintock, the man was first treated at Excela Health-Frick Hospital in Mount Pleasant before being transferred to UPMC-Presbyterian hospital in Pittsburgh for additional care.