Official Who Shot Grandson at Wedding Gets Probation

UPDATE Sep 10, 2024 4:17 PM CDT

A county commissioner from Texas who accidentally shot his own grandson at a wedding he was officiating in Nebraska has been sentenced to a year of probation. Michael Gardner, 63, fired a blank .45 Colt round into the boy's shoulder, causing a large, deep wound, when he tried to shoot into the air to get guests' attention. He pleaded guilty in July to a misdemeanor child abuse charge, reduced from a felony second-degree assault charge, the Lincoln Journal-Star reports. Attorney Matt Kosmicki said the 13-year-old boy has fully recovered and Gardner still feels bad about what happened. "Nobody will ever be harder on me than I will be irregardless of what I get here. It's something I'll have to deal with for the rest of my life," Gardner said at the sentencing hearing.

Oct 5, 2023 4:53 AM CDT

A Texas man decided to start off the wedding he was officiating "with a bang," a deputy says, and that bang allegedly left the man's own grandson with a gunshot wound and the man facing criminal charges. Michael Gardner, 62, shot a revolver into the air to get the attention of the guests at his nephew's wedding around 5pm Saturday in Nebraska, the Lancaster County Sheriff's Office chief deputy says, per CNN. While the gun had been loaded with a blank, he explains, Gardner had "put black powder into the casing and then glued it. And what we believe, is the glue is what injured the child" when the gun somehow slipped, leaving the 12-year-old with a shoulder injury. He is recovering in a hospital, CBS 7 reports.

Gardner—who is an elected official in Texas, the Ector County Commissioner—is charged with felony child abuse committed negligently and resulting in serious bodily injury. "We do not believe Michael intended to hurt his grandchild, but the act was not very smart," the deputy says, adding that alcohol is not believed to have been a factor. Interestingly, Gardner (who tells the Washington Post he wishes he had not used a homemade blank in the borrowed gun, which he had never fired before) finished officiating the ceremony and turned himself in days later. (More Texas stories.)