The Daily Populous Saturday September 14th, 2024 morning edition
Authored by nbcnews.com and submitted by RhythmMethodMan

A 17-year-old Colorado boy was shot in the face Tuesday by a town council member after he and a friend went to a home to ask permission to take homecoming photos on the property, police said.

The shooting happened around 4:15 p.m. at a home on Pleasant Park Road in Jefferson County, the sheriff's office said.

When deputies arrived, the 17-year-old was "bleeding heavily from his face, as a second juvenile applied pressure to his friend's wounds with a t-shirt," the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office said in a news release Wednesday. The teen is recovering.

Brent Metz, the boyfriend of a woman who lives at the home, was arrested in connection with the shooting. Metz, 38, is a council member for the town of Mountain View, according to NBC affiliate KUSA of Denver . The town administrator declined to comment to NBC News on Thursday.

Metz was booked on charges of first-degree assault, felony menacing, illegal discharge of a firearm and reckless endangerment. It was not clear whether he has an attorney.

The sheriff's office said the woman, who was not at the home, had called deputies before the shooting to report two trespassers on her property. She also called Metz, who drove over to the home and allegedly blocked the teen's car from leaving, KUSA reported.

Metz then got out of his vehicle and is alleged to have fired one round through the windshield of the teen's car, the station reported.

The 17-year-old told deputies that he and his friend went to the home because they wanted to take pictures there, authorities said. He said they parked outside the gate, hopped the fence and walked up the driveway to look for the homeowner, the sheriff's office said in a news release.

When they could not find anyone at the residence, the boys "walked around the property trying to locate a homeowner" and then got back in their car, the sheriff's office said.

"They returned to their car and began writing a note to the homeowner, asking permission to use their property to take pictures," authorities said. "While they were doing this, a man they had never seen before pulled up next to them, exited the truck he was driving, and fired a round through the windshield, striking the 17-year-old driver in the face."

A sheriff's office spokesperson told KUSA that the teen's intention did not seem "malicious or criminal."

According to an arrest affidavit obtained by the station, one of the teens reported hearing Metz say "Oh s---, my gun just went off" after the shooting. Metz tried to help the 17-year-old, but his friend pushed him away, the affidavit says.

_DOA_ on September 13rd, 2024 at 18:32 UTC »

"Oh, shit, my gun went off." Well, yeah. You pointed it at someone and pulled the trigger, dude.

cwaterbottom on September 13rd, 2024 at 18:24 UTC »

> According to an arrest affidavit obtained by the station, one of the teens reported hearing Metz say "Oh s---, my gun just went off" after the shooting.

That's not how that works, this is what happens when anybody can own a gun

Sohailian on September 13rd, 2024 at 18:03 UTC »

This idiot was probably thinking, "Finally, I've waited my entire life to feel threatened. Now I get to use my gun to show how threatened I am."