A 17-year-old Colorado boy was shot in the face Tuesday after he and a friend went to a home to ask permission to take homecoming photos on the property.
The shooting happened around 4:15 p.m. at a home on Pleasant Park Road in Jefferson County, the sheriff's office said.
When deputies arrived, the 17-year-old was "bleeding heavily from his face, as a second juvenile applied pressure to his friend's wounds with a t-shirt," the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office said in a news release Wednesday. The teen is recovering from his injuries.
Brent Metz, the boyfriend of a woman who lives at the home, was arrested in connection with the shooting.
He was booked on charges of first-degree assault, felony menacing, illegal discharge of a firearm, and reckless endangerment. It’s not clear if he has obtained an attorney.
The sheriff's office said the woman, who was not at the home, had called deputies before the shooting to report two trespassers on her property. She also called Metz, who drove over to the home and allegedly blocked the teen's car from leaving, according to NBC affiliate KUSA of Denver.
Metz then got out of his vehicle and allegedly fired one round through the windshield of the teen's car, the news station reported.
The 17-year-old told deputies that he and his friend went to the home because they wanted to take pictures there. He said they parked outside the gate, hopped the fence and walked up the driveway to look for the homeowner, the sheriff's office said in a news release.
When they could not find anyone at the residence, the boys "walked around the property trying to locate a homeowner" and then got back in their car, the sheriff's office said.
"They returned to their car and began writing a note to the homeowner, asking permission to use their property to take pictures," authorities said. "While they were doing this, a man they had never seen before pulled up next to them, exited the truck he was driving, and fired a round through the windshield, striking the 17-year-old driver in the face."
A sheriff's office spokesperson told KUSA that the teen's intent did not seem "malicious or criminal."
According to an arrest affidavit obtained by the news station, one of the teens said they heard Metz say, "Oh s---, my gun just went off," after the shooting. Metz tried to help the 17-year-old but his friend pushed him away, the affidavit says.
Metz, 38, is a council member for the town of Mountain View, according to KUSA. The town administrator declined to comment when contacted by NBC News on Thursday.
A friend of mine's mom lives on that street so I heard about this only a couple hours after it happened. It's a very friendly neighborhood and this type of behavior from teenagers isn't all that surprising. It's in the middle of the woods basically and it's not uncommon to see kids wandering around. The kinda neighborhood you see people pull up into other people's driveways to turn around. This wasn't even the man's house. It was his girlfriend's house and he so readily pulled his gun on some kid. Even if it was an accident you don't point a fucking gun at someone's face unless you mean it. That's basic gun shit.
Outside the US, this is every neighbourhood
I mean, it's pretty common everywhere, I believe. I think the difference is how people react. I've definitely gotten yelled at before when turning around. A lot of people in the US are super protective of their property, sometimes to a ridiculous extent. I'm a land surveyor so I often go through people's properties and I've been shot at before. Even had my shiny orange vest on as I heard a bullet wizz past me.
I'd say the guy from the article was one of them but he wasn't even the home owner.