MAN FIRED 3 SHOTS AT ARMADILLO, RICOCHET HIT HIS JAW

A Texas man was hit in the jaw by his own bullet while shooting at an armadillo on his property.

The shooting happened on July 30, 2015, in the Marietta area of Cass County, in East Texas. The BBC reported that the man spotted the armadillo, grabbed a .38 revolver and went outside.

“He went outside and took his .38 revolver and shot three times at the armadillo,” Cass County Sheriff Larry Rowe told Reuters.

At least one of those shots bounced off the armadillo’s shell and struck the man in the jaw.

The shooting happened just before 3 a.m., WSOC-TV reported. Marietta is about 40 miles southwest of Texarkana.

“His wife was in the house,” Rowe said, according to Lone Star Outdoor News.

The man was taken by air to a hospital. Doctors wired his broken jaw shut, WSOC-TV reported.

Lone Star Outdoor News described his injuries as non-life-threatening.

What happened next

Deputies went looking for the animal. “We didn’t find the armadillo,” Rowe said.

Cass County sheriff’s officials described the incident as a “possible accidental shooting” under investigation, according to a KLTV report reproduced by EMS1. The report placed the incident on Highway 77.

Spectrum News 1 reported the story on July 31, 2015, one day after the shooting. The story resurfaced online two years later, WSOC-TV reported.

No arrest or charge was reported. The armadillo remained unfound and its condition unknown on August 1, 2015.