Firing range shootings: Fatality, police officer among 4 Ohio cases

An accidental shooting at a Miami Twp. armory occurred Friday, the owner said, when a military veteran’s gun discharged as he was holstering it.

The man - described a local, frequent customer of the Miami Armory – was wounded in the buttocks as he was seeking to secure the semi-automatic weapon, according to armory owner David Becker.

RELATED: Man accidentally shoot himself when gun discharges

Becker said the shooting was the first at the armory since he bought it in 2014. However, it is among a number of accidents at Ohio firing ranges in the past two years. Here are four other incidents:

-Feb. 5. A woman was wounded at the Vandalia Range and Armory when a handgun being used by someone next to her apparently malfunctioned, police said. The woman, who was also firing a weapon, was hit at least once in her leg, authorities said.

-Sept. 7, 2017. Errant shots from the Miami Valley Shooting Grounds in Vandalia prompted a police officer use his cruiser as cover while the bullets landed at a neighboring business. Nobody was wounded, but "the shooters were a threat to public safety" violating the firing range's permit, authorities said. A neighbor filed a lawsuit against the range and its owner.

RELATED: Woman at Vandalia range shot in accident

-April 25, 2017. A police officer accidentally shot himself in the leg at a shooting range at the Lorain County Joint Vocational School in Oberlin, south of Lorain. The officer, with the Cleveland suburb of Rocky River, was flown by helicopter to Cleveland for treatment.

-June 18, 2016. A 64-year-old Clermont County gun shop owner was fatally shot during a concealed carry class at a gun shop in a town outside Cincinnati. The man died at the scene, where there were about 10 people in the concealed carry class at KayJay Gun Shop in Amelia.

James Baker, 64, was shot in the neck by a bullet fired while the class was practicing a gun “malfunction drill,” officials said. A firearms instructor, Mark T. Montgomery, 47, was indicted on a felony reckless homicide charge. His daughter, Katie Dunham – who prosecutors say was assisting with the class – was indicted on a misdemeanor negligent homicide charge.

Montgomery was convicted of negligent homicide, a first-degree misdemeanor, court records show. Dunham’s case was dismissed, according to court records.

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