A Putnam County High School teacher accidentally shot himself on school property but is recovering. No one else was on the property at the time, authorities say.
The teacher was delivering a vehicle to the school on Sunday, Jan. 8, for the automotive collision and repair class’s next project, Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills said. When the teacher got out of the wrecker and walked around it, a .22 pistol inside of his pocket went off and the bullet went into his leg.
“The security cameras captured it,” Sills said. “No one else was there and no one was harmed. You can see on the video that he gets out and as he is walking around the corner of the wrecker, all of a sudden he falls down and gets back up and then falls down again, gets up again and begins hopping on one foot.”
The teacher was taken by ambulance to a hospital in Athens and treated there, according to the sheriff.
Technically, Sills said, no guns are allowed on school grounds, but the incident did not happen during school hours or while the school was occupied, so no charges were filed.
“It’s obvious from the camera footage that it was an accident, and no one was there, so he had no intent to harm anyone at all,” he reiterated.
A rumor circulating and reaching back to The Eatonton Messenger gave a different version of the incident, but Sills confirmed the security camera footage captured the entire event, including the person involved as well as the date and time.
There was no discussion during the public session of the Jan. 23 school board meeting regarding the incident, according to The Messenger’s reporter who covered the meeting.