Man says shooting was accidental, gun part of recall

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — A man accused of shooting a woman says the charges should be dismissed because it was an accident and his weapon is a part of a recall.

The man's attorney says prosecutors should have never allowed the gun's manufacturer to tamper with the weapon.

"I was shocked that they did that," Charles Williston said. He's talking about a video recorded by the DeKalb County District Attorney's Office that shows an engineer with gun manufacturer Taurus International taking apart his gun.

Williston wonders if the engineer's intentions were good. "Whatever defect it had they tried to fix it," he said.

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Williston's attorney says DeKalb County prosecutors should have never allowed Taurus International to tamper with her client's gun. Especially without a court order or inviting her.

"This  rises to the level of prosecutorial misconduct at best," Marsha Mignott said.

Williston faces aggravated assault and aggravated battery. That's after police say he shot and wounded a woman at the Red Hills Sports Bar in Lithonia in October last year.

Williston says his legally licensed gun dropped and fired. He said it was an accident.

Prosecutors didn't believe that. Then they told Williston's attorney his gun was a part of a recall that affected nearly a million pistols made by Taurus. It a part of a batch of weapons by Taurus that fired after hitting the ground. %

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For Williston, it was an I told you so moment. "When I found out it was a recall I was like wow. It was a sigh of relief,

But prosecutors didn't buy it. They called in the Taurus engineer. He performed the video recorded test and decided: "There's nothing wrong with that pistol," Taurus attorney Tim Bumann said.

He said that's even though it's a part of a recall. Bumann said just because there's a recall doesn't mean every pistol is affected.

Williston's attorney said the testing was improper and was evidence tampering.

"The charges have to be dismissed because they tampered with the evidence. And there's no way he can have a fair trial," Mignott said.

The district attorney's office said it couldn't comment because this is an open investigation.

Taurus has entered into a class action settlement that impacts nearly a million weapons.

Cox Media Group