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MARION, Ind. — A Marion man is paralyzed from the neck down after an accidental shooting.

Police were called to the 700 block of South Lincoln Boulevard for a shooting at 12:28 a.m. Friday.

When officers arrived, they found Dustin Satterly, 35, lying on a bathroom floor with a gunshot injury to the right side of his neck. Police say they applied medical aid to Satterly until Marion General Hospital crews arrived to transport him to the hospital. Satterly was later flown to Parkview Hospital for additional care.

The apartment renter was on scene and originally told police he was not in the bathroom when the gun went off, but he said he thought it was an accident. After further investigation and multiple statements, the renter’s final account according to Marion police is as follows:

“That he and Satterly were in the bathroom to do drugs. He brought the gun into the bathroom to show Satterly. He removed the magazine from the gun, but failed to remove the cartridge left in the chamber. He was showing Satterly the gun when it went off.”

A search warrant for the scene resulted in police finding narcotics, drug paraphernalia and a handgun.

Satterly’s family is thankful he’s still alive, but the family questions how he ended up in the hospital and paralyzed from the neck down. His sister Angela Lines said he’s now a quadriplegic. She says she doesn’t understand how a gun can accidentally go off.

“If you own a gun, you should know it’s possibly loaded. You shouldn’t have it pointed at anyone. How your finger hits the trigger, and it accidentally goes off is beyond me. I don’t understand it,” Lines said.

Lines said the bullet is still lodged in her brother’s neck. She doesn’t personally know the guy who said he accidentally shot the gun.

National gun safety expert Guy Relford said gun owners should always assume a gun is loaded.

“There are what we call the four rules, and to accidentally hurt yourself or someone else with a gun you probably have to violate at least one, but more than likely multiple rules of gun safety,” Relford said.

He said the four rules are to treat the gun as if it’s loaded, keep it in a safe direction, keep your finger off the trigger until you’re ready to shoot, and know your target and what it is aligned with.

“I’m not going to take even an empty gun and point at you or point it at any part of myself. That’s just something you never do,” Relford said.

Lines said their whole family’s life has been changed in a matter of seconds because of someone mishandling a gun.

“Please, enough with the guns and drugs. Nobody thinks it will happen to them. You never think you will have to deal with anything like this. I know our family didn’t,” Lines said.

FOX59 is choosing not to release the friend’s name until charges have officially been filed.