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TREMONTON -- Two people were injured when a gun went off inside their vehicle near the Utah-Idaho border.
The driver, 23-year-old Benjamin Baugh of American Fork, is at Bear River Valley Hospital in Tremonton. We understand he is undergoing surgery. The front seat passenger, 26-year-old Sterling Glines of Hereford, Ariz., was driven by his parent to a hospital in Salt Lake City. Devin Belnap, 22, and Mark Dunn, 23, were not hurt.
The four men, who are students at Brigham Young University-Idaho, were traveling south on Interstate 15 around noon, on their way to Salt Lake City for General Conference.
When they were near the town of Portage, the highway patrol says Glines had the pistol. He took the magazine out and showed it to the other passengers. They looked at it and gave it back to him.
Cpl. John McMahon, with the Utah Highway Patrol, explained, "He replaced the magazine in the gun and slid the slide forward, which chambered around into the barrel of the gun. The driver then asked him a question about the safety issues of the glock; one of which is if you move the slide of the gun backwards it disengages the trigger and the gun doesn't fire. The passenger, unfortunately, wanted to show this safety issue and didn't disengage the slide far enough."
The highway patrol says Glines then pulled the trigger and the gun went off. The bullet went through his hand and hit the driver in the forearm. Part of the bullet lodged in the driver's forearm, but also exited and hit the driver side door and shattered the window.
Baugh was able to safely pull the car over safely and called 911. The highway patrol says Glines legally owned the gun and had a concealed weapon permit, but they say he did not follow the number one rule, which investigators say is to always treat the gun as if it's loaded. The highway patrol is still investigating this case, and they say charges could possibly be filed.
E-mail: syi@ksl.com
