A 17-year-old Colorado boy was shot in the face Tuesday after he and a friend went to a home to ask permission to take homecoming photos on the property.
The shooting happened around 4:15 p.m. at a home on Pleasant Park Road in Jefferson County, the sheriff’s office said.
When deputies arrived, the 17-year-old was “bleeding heavily from his face, as a second juvenile applied pressure to his friend’s wounds with a t-shirt,” the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release Wednesday. The teen is recovering from his injuries.
Brent Metz, the boyfriend of a woman who lives at the home, was arrested in connection with the shooting.
He was booked on charges of first-degree assault, felony menacing, illegal discharge of a firearm, and reckless endangerment. It’s not clear if he has obtained an attorney.
The sheriff’s office said the woman, who was not at the home, had called deputies before the shooting to report two trespassers on her property. She also called Metz, who drove over to the home and allegedly blocked the teen’s car from leaving, according to NBC affiliate KUSA of Denver.
Metz then got out of his vehicle and allegedly fired one round through the windshield of the teen’s car, the news station reported.
The 17-year-old told deputies that he and his friend went to the home because they wanted to take pictures there. He said they parked outside the gate, hopped the fence and walked up the driveway to look for the homeowner, the sheriff’s office said in a news release.
When they could not find anyone at the residence, the boys “walked around the property trying to locate a homeowner” and then got back in their car, the sheriff’s office said.
“They returned to their car and began writing a note to the homeowner, asking permission to use their property to take pictures,” authorities said. “While they were doing this, a man they had never seen before pulled up next to them, exited the truck he was driving, and fired a round through the windshield, striking the 17-year-old driver in the face.”
A sheriff’s office spokesperson told KUSA that the teen’s intent did not seem “malicious or criminal.”
According to an arrest affidavit obtained by the news station, one of the teens said they heard Metz say, “Oh s—, my gun just went off,” after the shooting. Metz tried to help the 17-year-old but his friend pushed him away, the affidavit says.
Metz, 38, is a council member for the town of Mountain View, according to KUSA. The town administrator declined to comment when contacted by NBC News on Thursday.
Never had a stranger wander onto your property before? People roll up to my home in vehicles and ATVs to ask questions every year. Usually to ask about permission to hunt or lease parts of the property in person.
I’ve never had a stranger hop the fence to get onto my property. It’s completely different walking up to someone’s front door versus a house where you need to climb over a barrier to enter.
I’m willing to bet your property has a driveway open to the road right?
What if the property is entirely surrounded by a fence, including the driveway from the road? How would someone knock on the door to ask permission for something? Or to leave a note, if someone is not home? Which is literally what these kids were doing.
There’s no excuse to raise a weapon towards an unidentified person on your property without even attempting to talk to them first. Period. They clearly were not a threat at the time.
I already said that in the first comment but I’m glad you agree.