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Police: Westmoreland County Man In Bathroom Accidentally Shoots Downstairs Neighbor

YOUNGWOOD, Pa, (KDKA) -- Police say a man in Westmoreland County accidentally shot his downstairs neighbor.

Robert Hood said he was sitting on the floor watching TV but then decided to move to the couch. That single move may have saved his life.

"I heard a little bang and I looked down and see the top of my hand with a little blood," Hood said.

shot in hand
(Photo Credit: KDKA)

What happened, according to Hood and state police, is that the 69-year-old man's upstairs neighbor — Shawn Moran — was trying to use the toilet when he said his 9mm pistol got caught in his shirt and went off, sending a bullet through the floor and into Hood's apartment.

Hood was shot in the hand.

"It actually sounded like a cap gun," Hood said.

But it was real and bled like it. Hood could not use his hand to dial his phone, so he ran upstairs to Moran's apartment to get help.

"He started saying, 'I'm sorry, I'm sorry,'" Hood said.

Hood just beat cancer and said he wasn't sure if he had any good fortune left. But believe it or not, he said luck was on his side in all of this.

"If it had happened a couple of minutes earlier, I would have been sitting on the floor right there," Hood said. "It would have got me in my head, my neck, or shoulder."

Moran now faces felony firearms and simple assault charges. Hood faces several surgeries, but given what could have happened he said he's OK with that.

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