Woman’s gun discharges at Chesterton hotel

• Reprints

Jessica Harrison. | Provided Photo~Sun-Times Media ptmet

Updated: March 23, 2012 8:19AM

CHESTERTON — A woman from out of state was drinking alcohol while playing with a gun inside her room at the Best Western. When the gun fired, the bullet went through her door about 4 feet off the floor, across the hall and through the wall of another occupied guest room. An ironing board stopped its path.

Although several guests and employees were alarmed, and the guests in the room across the hall immediately checked out, no one was hurt in the incident at 10:53 p.m. Sunday.

Jessica Harrison, 30, from Plato, Mo., admitted she had been drinking and was practicing taking the safety off her .45-caliber pistol, police said. The gun, for which she did not have a permit, accidentally discharged while her husband was at their vehicle to look for more alcohol, and the woman admitted grabbing her things to run, not wanting to be kicked out of the military. But when police arrived at the hotel before she could, she immediately admitted to being responsible.

Police briefly spoke to a woman staying in the room across the hall at the hotel, at 558 Indian Boundary Road. She said she heard a loud bang and the room shook, then she found the bullet on the floor. She quickly checked out of the motel without giving police her name, despite assurances the area was safe.

Harrison, who was visiting in town with her husband to see a relative, is charged with felony criminal recklessness with a weapon with misdemeanor possession of a handgun without a permit.

Her blood-alcohol level was 0.034 percent, police said.