Robert Wells, 76, had his father’s old handgun out and was looking at it when his right hearing aid started squealing, and he reached to turn it off, but had his finger in the trigger guard and the gun went off, shooting Wells on the right side of his head about two inches above his ear, said the report.
When law enforcement arrived, Wells was still on the couch where he had accidentally shot himself, and while there was blood on the couch, the bleeding had already stopped, and Wells was conscious and alert, the report stated.
Wells apparently didn’t know how the gun, a nickel-plated .38-caliber handgun, worked and didn’t know what hammerless meant, the report said. There was one spent round under the hammer and four live rounds in the cylinder.
When Wells’s wife heard the shot, she called 911, and Trigg County Emergency Medical Service took him to Trigg County Hospital, and he was later flown to Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, said the report.
