SOCORRO, New Mexico (STPNS) -- A Magdalena man shot himself accidentally Sunday as he was pushing his car to a gas pump.

According to the police report, officers Bobby Aragon and Luis Chavez were called to the Pump and Save on South Highway 85 at 5:50 p.m. Sunday on a report of a gunshot. The officers found a man with blood dripping from the left sleeve of his jacket. The victim said he had shot himself in the arm.

Ambulance personnel arrived, and while walking to the ambulance the man told officers he had dropped his pistol and it went off, wounding him in the arm and possibly the chest.



He said the Davis Industries Derringer pistol was in his lap while driving.

A passenger in the car, his girlfriend, said they had been driving from Magdalena and noticed the car was running out of gas at the top of Sedillo Hill, so they coasted the rest of the way into Socorro.

She said that when they got to the Pump ?N Save, he got out of the car to push it to the pump, forgetting the two barreled pistol that had been sitting on his lap.

She said she heard a shot and that her boyfriend said he had been shot, and that he picked up the gun and put it on the seat.

Hospital personnel treated him for a bullet wound to his left forearm and a bruise on his chest.

No charges have been filed, but evidence, including the pistol, the jacket and two spent rounds were being kept at the police station until a thorough investigation is completed.