Man shoots bullet through neighbor’s apartment

A Bloomington man is charged with criminal recklessness after his firearm discharged in his apartment, with the bullet traveling into an adjoining apartment, Bloomington Police Department Sgt. Joe Crider said.

A 22-year-old male reported to BPD on Oct. 28 that during the week prior, he had found three holes in the walls of his apartment in the 3100 block of South Acadia Court, including a wall that is shared with an adjacent apartment.

Officers found Benjamin Warman in the adjacent apartment and interviewed him, but he said he was uncertain how the holes got into the apartment walls.

He told police he had heard a boom outside and said someone shot through his apartment window the week prior. He showed police a hole in his window screen. He claims he was intoxicated with alcohol when the incident happened and went to sleep instead of calling the police.

The police noticed the hole in the window did not match the trajectory of the bullet.

His roommate, a 26-year-old male, was also interviewed. He originally told the same story as Warman, but eventually told police that on Oct. 23 Warman was handling a spring-filled .45 caliber semi-automatic handgun, showing the 26-year-old male how to take it apart, when it discharged.

The bullet traveled through the adjoining wall of the two apartments, then through the neighbor’s shower wall and lodged into the neighbor’s bathroom door.  A .45 caliber slug was found in the door.

The roommate said both he and Warman were scared after the incident and therefore did not contact police or check on their neighbors. The roommate admitted the hole in the window screen was a cover up.

After police obtained this information from the roommate, they re-interviewed Warman, at which point he said he was intoxicated and had no recollection of what happened that night.

The gun was found in Warman’s apartment and seized by police. He is being preliminarily charged with criminal recklessness with a deadly weapon.

— Sydney Murray