Man ‘shot by dog’ while lying in bed with female friend

He claimed his pet pulled the trigger

The incident happened in Memphis, Tennessee, USA, in the early hours of Monday morning (10 March).

Jerald Kirkwood was reportedly "relaxing and talking" with an unidentified woman in his bedroom when his dog jumped onto his bed.

The dog, named Oreo, is a one-year-old pitbull terrier which was so excited upon entering the bedroom that he reportedly stepped on a gun on the floor, getting his paw stuck in the trigger guard.

This ultimately caused the gun to go off in Kirkwood's direction causing a bullet to graze his left thigh, leading to him being treated by paramedics at the scene and later taken to hospital for non-critical treatment.

Allegedly, the female friend left the scene and took the gun with her before the arrival of the paramedics.

A friend of the wounded man said: "There was a freak incident, and the dog jumped up and caused the gun to discharge."

They insisted the dog is friendly and also that Kirkwood is fine.

A police report said: "When officers asked the victim where the weapon was, he advised that the female friend took it when she left."

One shell casing was recovered at the scene.

Police filed the incident as an 'accidental injury.’