Charges filed after gun discharges in hotel room
A Finleyville man has been charged with assault after claiming a firearm accidentally went off inside a hotel room Friday.
Raymond Charles Russell Jr., 53, of Hidden Valley Drive is charged with two counts each of aggravated assault, attempts to cause bodily harm of serious injury with extreme indifference, recklessly endangering another person and simple assault and single counts of discharging a firearm into an occupied structure, tampering with physical evidence, disorderly conduct, public drunkenness and criminal mischief.
State police troopers were called to Best Western in Bentleyville for a report of shots fired inside a hotel room around 10:40 p.m.
Room 218 was registered to Russell, who was walking toward the hotel from a grassy area beyond the parking lot when police arrived at the scene.
Troopers said there was a strong smell of alcohol coming from Russell when they asked him where the gun was.
He initially told police it was in his truck, but when officers asked him to unlock the vehicle, he told them he hid it in the bushes.
After police secured the gun, they spoke to witnesses about the incident.
Russell allegedly told officers he “was pretty drunk” and was messing around with the gun to show off in the hotel room when it accidentally went off.
“It scared the hell out of me, I panicked. I grabbed the gun and left with my fiancé. I went outside and hid the gun, I didn’t know what to do,” Russell told officers, according to the affidavit.
Police interviewed two people who were staying in the adjoining room 216 at the time shots were fired.
They told police they were sitting on their beds when they heard a loud pop and thought it was a blown light bulb.
They searched the room and saw a bullet hole in the drywall.
They called the front desk to report the incident and waited for first responders to arrive.
No injuries were reported. Russell is being held in the Washington County Jail in lieu of $10,000 bond.
A preliminary hearing before Magisterial District Judge Eric Porter is set for 10 a.m. Aug. 7.
