A California teacher accidentally discharged a gun while doing a firearms demonstration in front of a high school class on Tuesday, leaving one student with non-life-threatening injuries.
According to a statement from police, the teacher, identified as Dennis Alexander, was providing instruction on public safety at Seaside High School in Seaside, CA. Alexander, who is also a reserve police officer with the nearby Sand City police department and a Seaside city councilman, was pointing the loaded gun at the ceiling when it went off. The injured 17-year-old student’s father, Fermin Gonzales, told KSBW that his son was hurt when fragments from the bullet ricocheted off the ceiling and lodged in his neck.
“It’s the craziest thing. It could have been very bad,” Gonzales told the station. He said he found out about the incident when his son came home from school with blood on his shirt and bullet fragments in his neck.