A 70-year-old Edgecomb man was released from Central Maine Medical Center Dec. 11, following treatment for an accidental, self-inflicted gunshot wound.
The Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office declined to identify the man because the incident occurred on private property and no criminal charges are being filed. “Our detectives have looked at this and they don’t believe there was any criminal act,” LCSO Lt. Rand Maker said.
After he was injured Dec. 5, the man was transported by LifeFlight helicopter to Central Maine Medical Center, according to Edgecomb Fire Chief Roy Potter.
The page for the incident went out at around 12:30 p.m. Dec. 5. Potter said he was told the man had called in the accident himself.
When Potter arrived on the scene on Moonlight Road in Edgecomb, the man was still conscious but had lost “a lot of blood.”
Potter said he believes the man “had a .38 in the pocket of his jacket and it went off.”
“The bullet went into his chest and the medics believe it was lodged in his neck,” Potter said.
A landing zone was set up at the Edgecomb Fire Station, and a Wiscasset ambulance transported the man to the helicopter, Potter said.
“What we believe happened was the gentleman was working on a boat on his property and had a small caliber weapon in his pocket. At some point during that event, the weapon discharged,” Maker said.
The weapon was a semi-automatic pistol, and the man had to have been carrying the pistol with a bullet in the chamber in order for it to have fired, Maker said.
Good safety practices probably weren’t followed and the accident may have been preventable, Maker said. “We certainly wouldn’t recommend carrying a weapon in your pocket,” he said.
Maker said he was not certain if the victim had a permit to carry a concealed weapon.