The loud bang caused Sara Burgess' ears to ring and she immediately thought about the safety of her 9-year-old son and 7-year-old daughter. It wasn't but a moment later that her husband, Brian, noticed a trickle of blood coming from his wife's leg.

Burgess was hit from a ricocheted bullet at the Texas Roadhouse on Remount Road in Gastonia on Friday night, just moments before the wait staff delivered her 6-ounce sirloin.

"It could have been very bad," said Gastonia Police Sgt. A.R. Wurster.

Burgess, 30, of Cherryville, escaped serious injury. She said emergency room doctors gave her an antibiotic cream to put on her wound after an X-ray showed there was no leftover shrapnel embedded in her calf. She also had to get a tetanus shot, she said.

A 64-year-old Charlotte man, Gregory Lynn Katsma, faces misdemeanor charges of shooting a weapon inside the city limits and resist, delay and obstructing a public officer in the incident. He was booked into Gaston County Jail under a $5,000 bond, but bailed himself out in less than three hours. His telephone number went direct to voicemail Saturday night.

Katsma had finished his meal and paid for it with a credit card. He was walking past the table where Burgess and her family were seated just before 7:30 p.m. when police say his 9 mm Ruger fired one shot. It was unclear why the weapon fired, but police believe it was unintentional.

The bullet went into the ground and a fragment from that bullet broke apart and hit Burgess in the calf, police said. She said a bullet hole could be seen in the wooden area where diners step up into their booths.

Katsma didn't even apologize afterward.

"He let out a big cuss word and rushed out the door," Burgess said. "I remember thinking, I can't believe he just said a cuss word and my kids are sitting right here."

Wait staff wrote down the license plate on his motorcycle and police obtained his credit card information. They talked to him Friday night in Charlotte and then secured warrants for his arrest Saturday.

Katsma should not have left the restaurant, which led to the resisting arrest charge, Wurster said.

"He got scared. That's what he said," Wurster said.

Katsma carried the Ruger in a homemade holster that fitted inside the waist band of his pants, Wurster said. The gun would not be visible by just looking at him. It was unclear why the gun fired.

North Carolina law allows people with concealed carry permits to bring firearms into restaurants as long as they are not drinking alcohol, which Katsma was not doing, Wurster said.

The popular restaurant was packed Friday night when the shooting occurred right in the middle of the dinner rush, said Jen Fink, a manager at Texas Roadhouse.

"Most of our staff was pretty frightened," Fink said. "Nobody left because of it. It was just a shock."

Texas Roadhouse does not have a sign asking patrons to keep their weapons out of the restaurant, but Fink said that has come up for discussion since Friday night's incident.

"We're very sorry that it happened," said Fink.

Burgess holds no ill will toward Texas Roadhouse. She praised the restaurant managers for helping calm her children and staying with her and her family.

A manager cleaned her wound and bandaged her leg. Burgess refused to take an ambulance to the hospital because she said she didn't want to pay the charge and she worried that it would upset her two young children.

"And, of course, they didn't make us pay," Burgess said of the restaurant.

She doesn't even blame Katsma. She said she knows he did not mean to have his gun discharge. She believes in gun rights and in the right for people to carry firearms into restaurants if, like Katsma, they hold a concealed carry permit.

But if a gun owner fires a weapon, even by mistake, and someone gets hurt they ought to say sorry.

"I'm not mad his gun went off," Burgess said. "I'm mad he didn't stick around to make sure everyone was OK."

You can reach Kevin Ellis at 704-869-1823 or Twitter.com/TheGazetteKevin.