Police: Partygoer didn't know he was shot

Douglas Walker | The Star Press

MUNCIE – City police said a Muncie man was shot in the leg early Saturday.

However, apparently due to his level of intoxication, the victim did not realize a bullet had entered his thigh.

Officers were sent to the 600 block of West University Avenue about 2:10 a.m. after dispatchers received a report of shots fired.

Investigators – and those attending a late-night gathering at the house where the call was placed from – initially were unaware anyone had been hit by the gunfire.

City police Sgt. Mike Engle said a shot was apparently fired in the house’s back yard, with the bullet passing through a trash Toter and a sliding glass door, entering the home just above floor level.

Police and those in the house were at first unsuccessful in tracking where the bullet traveled in the house.

Those at the party then recalled a 24-year-old Muncie man – who had been drinking – was lying on the floor in front of a couch when the shot was heard. He was later helped onto another couch by friends.

An examination of that man revealed a bullet wound in his thigh, Engle said. The victim was taken by ambulance to IU Health Ball Memorial Hospital, where he was treated in the emergency room.

The man will later undergo surgery to have the bullet removed from his leg. Police have asked for that projectile.

Engle said a “person of interest” who had earlier quarreled with one of the partygoers was questioned and cleared.

“I don’t think anyone was targeted (by the gunshot),” the police sergeant said.

While the party took place not far from the Ball State University campus, Engle said he believed only one of about a dozen people in attendance was a BSU student.

Contact news reporter Douglas Walker at (765) 213-5851. You can also follow him on Twitter @DouglasWalkerSP.