A former Monongalia County sheriff’s deputy is facing a firearm charge after he blamed a friend’s dog for a rifle discharge that pierced his ceiling and injured a juvenile in the apartment above.
On Oct. 2, fellow deputies responded to a report of shots fired. Andrew Mounts told them the AR-15 rifle had gone off because of the dog, according to the account cited in the report. The bullet entered the occupied apartment upstairs, where three people were present. One juvenile suffered injuries and received medical evaluation and treatment at the scene.
The official findings undercut that first explanation. Investigators said the weapon was loaded, unsecured and had its safety disengaged when it fired inside Mounts’s apartment. The projectile then traveled through the ceiling into the home above, putting everyone in that apartment at risk.
Mounts later acknowledged that he had been handling the AR-15 when it discharged. He was subsequently charged with Wanton Endangerment Involving a Firearm. The case then centered on the condition and handling of the weapon rather than the explanation he initially gave deputies.
Mounts was working as a Monongalia County deputy when the incident happened, but the sheriff’s department said he is no longer employed there. The agency also said it expects personnel to meet high standards of conduct and accountability both on and off duty.
The incident comes amid a long-term national decline in accidental firearm deaths. CDC figures cited in the report show the number fell from 824 in 1999 to 450 in 2024, a reduction of almost half. Even so, the injury in this case shows how quickly an unsecured weapon can affect people in a separate residence.
Why It Matters
The story matters because the danger did not remain inside one apartment. An unsecured loaded rifle created a threat for people who had no connection to the weapon or the person handling it. The projectile crossed into an occupied home, and a juvenile needed medical attention. That gives the case stakes beyond an unusual explanation at the scene. It also highlights the difference between an initial account and the facts investigators later described, making Mounts’s admission important to understanding how the case developed.
Mounts’s former law enforcement role adds a public-trust issue to the criminal allegation. His loss of the job represents one form of accountability, while the firearm charge must still move through the legal process. The open questions concern the case’s eventual outcome and how the juvenile’s injury will figure in it. The broader decline in accidental deaths offers national context, but it does not erase the consequences of an individual discharge. For the people in the apartment above, the risk was immediate and personal.
Source: The Liberty Daily
