Granite Falls, WA: Man Says Gun Used In Drunken Foreplay Killed Girlfriend

Posted: 10:46 am PDT April 12, 2010
Updated: 2:06 pm PDT April 12, 2010

GRANITE FALLS, Wash. -- A 25-year-old man says he accidentally shot to death his 22-year-old girlfriend with a gun they used during drunken foreplay, said Rebecca Hover of the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office.
The man told detectives that he and his girlfriend of 10 years had been drinking at a party in their home Saturday night and afterward were intimate in bed.
He told police that he rubbed the loaded handgun all over his girlfriend after consuming more than one six-pack of beer. He said his girlfriend drank six bottles of Mike’s Hard Lemonade.
He said that the couple forgot about the gun until after having sex. He said he found the gun at the foot of the bed and picked it up. When he swung his arm toward his girlfriend, it went off, he told police.
He called 911, and deputies responded at about 5:30 a.m. Sunday to the home in the 23200 block of 134th Street Northeast in unincorporated Granite Falls.
Hover said, "He was adamant the shooting was an accident."
He called himself an "idiot" several times during an interview with police and implied he would hurt himself for what he’d done, police said.
During the incident, the couple's two young children were asleep in the same room on a different bed, Hover said.
The man was booked into the Snohomish County Jail Sunday afternoon on a charge of first-degree manslaughter.
Hover said a background check indicated that there have been three previous domestic violence incidents involving the couple between 2007 and 2009, with the girlfriend as the victim.
The case remains under investigation.