This man was accidentally shot in the abdomen

A man had to be airlifted from a vacation property outside Princeton after being accidentally shot in the abdomen Friday (June 7).

Sgt. Robert Hughes of the Princeton RCMP says police were alerted by ambulance crews at 1 p.m. for a report of a man shot while cleaning his gun.

Officers arriving at the home on Alison Lake learned that, in fact, a group of men at the vacation property were inside the home when one of the men picked up the pistol, "was manipulating it," and it accidentally discharged.

The bullet struck a 24-year-old Lower Mainland man in the upper abdomen and he was airlifted to Royal Columbian Hospital in New Westminster.

The man that accidentally fired the gun was not the registered owner of the restricted pistol. The owner of the gun, however, was inside the home.

Sgt. Hughes says the group of men were from across B.C., Alberta and Saskatchewan. It’s not known what condition the victim is now in.

“At no point should anyone be shooting a firearm — a restricted or prohibited weapon  — in the bush,” Hughes says. “I don’t know where they were going or why the firearm was loaded in the house. We are still working on that.”

“There are no circumstances where a pistol, being restricted, should be loaded inside a residence.”

Hughes says they are still investigating if travel permits for the pistol were in place, noting a gun range is just about the only place a restricted pistol can be legally loaded.

The pistol was seized, he says, and the matter remains under investigation.

— Colin Dacre, Castanet