It “Wizzed” By Me

MESA, AZ (CBS5) – In Mesa, a man was inside a Walmart bathroom when a bullet struck just a few feet from the urinal where he was standing.

“Last thing that you’d expect is for a gunshot to go off, go right through the stall door while you’re doing your business if you will,” said Sgt. Ed Wessing from the Mesa Police Department.

The gun went off in the men’s bathroom at the Walmart on McKellips and Greenfield roads Saturday afternoon.

“I’m certain that our victim in this case was startled to say the least,” said Wessing.

That man was standing at the urinal when police say 24-year-old Andrew Seals entered a stall wearing a western-style holster and .357-caliber antique revolver.

Before he could sit down, he had an accident.

“He took the belt off as he was going to use the restroom and it dropped on the floor, and the motion of it hitting the floor caused that weapon to discharge. When you’re in a closed environment like that, it’s extremely loud and extremely startling,” Wessing said.

The big bullet traveled right through the metal door, ricocheted off the wall and took out a light fixture up above, then struck the floor only a few feet from where the victim was standing. He was pretty shaken up about it.

“He felt that his life was endangered by what happened,” said Wessing.

CBS 5 News visited Seals at his Phoenix home Monday night, but he didn’t want to talk about the incident.

“I’m sure he was embarrassed. Certainly we feel that he was reckless in safeguarding that firearm and causing it to discharge,” Wessing said.

The Mesa Police Department plans to file an endangerment charge against Seals. It will be up to prosecutors to decide how they wish to proceed.