ROME – A New Hampshire man is recuperating after shooting himself in the buttocks while watching TV Friday night, police said Monday.

Kyle Bassler, 20, of Derry, N.H., was taken to Inland Hospital in Waterville, where he was treated for a gunshot wound and released, Kennebec County Sheriff’s Deputy Nathan McNally said in a news release.

Capt. Daniel Davies of the sheriff’s office said no charges will be filed in the case.

The shooting occurred around 7:30 p.m. Friday at a camp on West Point Lane. Police were not notified for another two hours, when Inland Hospital’s emergency room staff reported an apparent accidental shooting of one of its patients.

Bassler told McNally that he had been hunting a nuisance squirrel outside the camp with a .22-caliber handgun. Bassler put the gun in a holster, which was fitted inside his pants, and went back into the camp.

“Bassler claimed that he sat in a chair and was watching TV when he heard the gun go off and felt a subsequent burning sensation on his backside,” McNally said. “Bassler stood up and realized that the firearm had discharged and that he was, in fact, shot.”

Friends and family members at the camp helped get Bassler to the hospital, where the staff removed the bullet from his buttocks, McNally said.

Kennebec Journal Staff Writer Craig Crosby can be contacted at 621-5642 or at:

ccrosby@centralmaine.com

 

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