A man accidentally shot himself and his wife while giving a lecture about guns in places of worship following recent nationwide shootings.
The incident took place Thursday afternoon at the First United Methodist Church in Tellico Plains, Tennessee.
Police say two unnamed individuals, in their 80’s, were immediately transported to the University of Tennessee Medical Center.
They suffered non-life threatening injuries after the gun lesson went horribly wrong.
A man accidentally shot himself and his wife at the First United Methodist Church (shown) in Tellico Plains, Tennessee Thursday
It seems the elderly husband took out his ‘.380 caliber Ruger handgun, removed the magazine, cleared the chamber, and showed the gun to some of the men in the church’ at the time, according to the Knoxville News Sentinel.
Police Chief Russ Parks said when the man put the magazine back in, he loaded a round in the chamber without thinking twice.
When another person approached him to inquire about the gun, the man took it back out of its holster and said: ‘With this loaded indicator, I can tell that it’s not loaded’, just before pulling the trigger.
The wife standing nearby was shot through her abdomen and the man, in the hand, according to the newspaper.
He ‘evidently forgot that he re-chambered the weapon,’ Parks said of the incident.
Police Chief Russ Parks (pictured above) said the unnamed man ‘evidently forgot that he re-chambered the weapon’ before pulling the trigger
The incident comes nearly two weeks after Devin Patrick Kelley opened fire into the congregation at First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, killing 26.
Just prior to the massacre, Kelley posted a photo of a AR-15 style gun to his Facebook page, while writing in a caption: ‘She’s a bad b***h.’
Victims of the attack included eight members of one family, a pregnant mother and three of her children, a toddler as well as the daughter of the pastor.
Police said after the deadly attack there was likely ‘no way’ for congregants to escape.
‘He (Kelley) just walked down the center aisle, turned around and my understanding was shooting on his way back out,’ said Wilson County Sheriff, Joe D. Tackitt Jr.
‘It’s unbelievable to see children, men and women, laying there. Defenseless people.’
Another person at the church (church official Facebook page is shown) approached the man to inquire futher about his gun. That’s when the man took it back out of its holster and fired a gunshot