The prosecutor’s office filed charges against the Greenwood man who shot a woman on the Fourth of July in Clark Township.
Levi C. Griffith, 21, is charged with criminal recklessness with a deadly weapon.
The victim’s family initially called in the incident as a fireworks injury, but determined it was a gunshot wound after speaking with Griffith, according to court documents filed Friday in Johnson County Superior Court 2.
The victim felt something strike her neck and thought it might have been a stray firework. The family had been sitting outside together watching fireworks that were being set off in the Homecoming at University Park subdivision, according to court documents.
The family was picking up their things when the victim was struck in the neck with the object. They quickly realized the object was a bullet, not a firework, court documents show.
An individual took away the gun from Griffith, removed the bullet from the chamber and took the gun to his home for safekeeping until law enforcement arrived, according to court documents.
When sheriff’s deputies arrived at the scene in the 500 block of Griffith Road, they spoke to Griffith and he admitted to firing the gun. Griffith told deputies he had been firing warning shots at trespassers and didn’t realize he had shot the woman, court documents show.
The casings were found approximately 115 feet away from where Griffith told police he fired at the “trespassers.” This is in an unlighted area at the edge of the Homecoming neighborhood, according to court documents.
The victim was taken to Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Hospital with non-life threatening gunshot wound, court documents show.
Family members told deputies that Griffith had recently purchased the gun and carried it with him everywhere. They said he also recently lost weight and had a change in his personality, according to court documents.
Since the incident, Griffith has bonded out of jail but does not have access to guns, said Andrew Barnhart, chief deputy of the sheriff’s office.
Red flag law proceedings to keep Griffith from obtaining another gun are underway, said Joe Villanueva, Johnson County prosecutor.
