Practicing his quick draw, Cedar Mill man shoots old-time gangster ... sort of | Crime

CEDAR MILL, Ore. -- A man who was practicing quickdraw with his gun in his apartment Wednesday afternoon accidentally fired off a shot that went through a wall and into another apartment.

At about 2:51 p.m. May 11, Washington County Sheriff’s deputies responded to a 911 call at the apartment of Travis T. Hood, 27, in the 8150 block of Southwest Barnes Road in Cedar Mill. Hood had called 911 and said his .357 Magnum gun went off while he was cleaning it. He told police the bullet went through the wall into another apartment and he didn’t know if anyone was home next door.

After deputies talked to Hood, they tried to contact someone inside his neighbors apartment. No one came to the door so they obtained a key from the manager and went in. They searched the apartment and found that no one was home.

They quickly found the hole in the wall where the bullet had entered the apartment and traced the trajectory to a 40-inch flat screen television on the opposite wall that had a hole in the middle of the screen.

Hood was cooperative and showed deputies where he had shot the wall in his apartment. He also admitted he had not been cleaning his gun when it went off. He had actually been practicing his quickdraw and accidently fired the gun when he drew it from the holster. He had been aiming at a poster of Michael Corleone, played by Al Pacino, in the classic gangster movie "The Godfather" on the wall when it happened.

After the bullet went through the poster, seeming to hit Pacino in the left shoulder, Hood went to the neighbor’s apartment and tried to get someone to come to the door. When no one answered, he thought he had shot someone inside and then called 911.

One of the deputies investigating the case said that if there was someone sitting on the couch watching the TV in the apartment the bullet accidentally went into, the person would have likely been hit by the bullet.

Hood was arrested and taken to the Washington County Jail where he was booked on charges of unlawful use of a weapon, first-degree criminal mischief, and recklessly endangering.