Man accidentally shot by co-worker during Fort Worth gun show at Will Rogers center
A man was accidentally shot in the chest by his co-worker at a gun show booth at the Will Rogers Memorial Center over the weekend, according to Fort Worth police.
Off-duty police officers working at the Premier Gun Show reported the shooting about 8:30 a.m. Saturday at the Will Rogers center, at 3401 W. Lancaster Ave.
Patrol officers responded and found that the shooting happened “due to a misfire” when one of the employees was handling a gun, a police spokesperson said.
The shooting victim was taken to a hospital and is expected to survive.
The person who fired the gun was interviewed at the scene but was not taken into custody because police determined it was an accident, the spokesperson said.
Three years ago, a woman was injured in another accidental shooting during a Premier Guns Shows event at the Will Rogers Memorial Center. In June 2021, a man attending the gun show picked up a handgun that was on display at a vendor’s booth and pointed it at the ground while pulling the trigger. A bullet was in the chamber, and it ricocheted off the floor and hit a woman in the foot, police said.
According to gun show rules and policies, guns at the events are not allowed to be loaded, Fort Worth city officials said in a statement in 2021. All guns are supposed to be inspected to make sure they’re unloaded, but city officials said those rules were not followed in the 2021 incident.
A man sued Premier Gun Shows after he was hit in the neck by an arrow at another show produced by the company at the Fort Worth Convention Center in 2019.
An employee working at a booth was demonstrating a crossbow-like weapon when it went off and the arrow hit the man, according to the the lawsuit. The suit was dismissed in 2022 when the parties agreed to a settlement, according to Tarrant County court records.
This story was originally published June 10, 2024 at 9:16 AM.
