Armadillo Ricochet: Man Gets Hit With Bullet After Shooting Hard-Shelled Animal


An armadillo ricochet hit a man after he was successful in landing a shot at the hard-shelled animal.

According to ABC News affiliate KRTV-9, the incident occurred at approximately 3:00 a.m. The man reportedly shot the armadillo with a .38 revolver three times in the 27,000 block of Highway 77 near Marietta, south of Texarkana.

Apparently, one of the bullets ricocheted off of the animal’s armor and came back to hit the unidentified man in the jaw. He was later airlifted to a nearby hospital, where he had his jaw wired shut. The fate of the armadillo remains unknown.

The Cass County Sheriff’s officials are considering the incident a “possible accidental shooting.” However the investigation is still ongoing.

According to Chief Deputy Roy Barker, it is fairly common to hear about people shooting armadillos in Texas, as most people refer to them as “pests.”

“This is the country, and we have a lot of armadillos,” Barker said, according to the Huffington Post. “Sometimes they can be kind of destructive and dig things up in the yard, like plants and gardens. So it’s not uncommon.”

Surprisingly, this isn’t the first time someone has been injured while shooting at an armadillo.

As the Inquisitr previously reported, Larry McElroy tried to rid his yard of one of the pesky creatures at his home in Leesburg, Georgia, using a 9mm pistol. Unfortunately, in a similar incident, the bullet ricocheted and ended up hitting his 74-year-old mother-in-law, Carol Johnson, in the back, while she sat in her trailer approximately 100 yards away. Luckily, Carol’s injuries were not too severe, and she survived the accident. She was expected to make a full recovery.

“When McElroy shot his 9mm gun at the armadillo, the bullet killed the creature and ricocheted off of its back. The bullet then hit a fence and changed trajectory towards his mother-in-law’s trailer where it shot through the back door, made its way through the back of her recliner, and stopped in her back.”

Armadillos serve as a direct link between leprosy in humans, so county officials urge people shoot them, rather than catching them in traps. However, if someone plans to shoot one of the animals, they suggest using a shotgun to avoid these types of situations.

[Photo via Shutterstock]

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