Husband loading pistol shoots wife in head while she was in another room, NY cops say

A husband loaded his pistol and a bullet fired from the weapon, hitting his wife in another room, authorities in New York said.

The bullet shot through the wall of their Greenfield home and struck the 74-year-old woman in the head around 7:40 p.m. on March 19, according to the Saratoga County Sheriff’s Office.

The man, 74, told police he finished cleaning his gun before loading it and the weapon went off, the sheriff’s office said in a March 21 news release.

Authorities are investigating the fatal shooting. No charges have been filed, according to the release.

At this point, “it does not appear the shooting was intentional,” Saratoga County Sheriff’s Office Capt. Jeff Brown told McClatchy News in a statement on March 22.

Greenfield is about 190 miles north of New York City.

This story was originally published March 22, 2023 at 6:21 AM with the headline "Husband loading pistol shoots wife in head while she was in another room, NY cops say."

Julia Marnin

McClatchy DC

Julia Marnin covers courts for McClatchy News, writing about criminal and civil affairs, including cases involving policing, corrections, civil liberties, fraud, and abuses of power. As a reporter on McClatchy’s National Real-Time Team, she’s also covered the COVID-19 pandemic and a variety of other topics since joining in 2021, following a fellowship with Newsweek. Born in Biloxi, Mississippi, she was raised in South Jersey and is now based in New York State.