Woman Shoots Finger Off in False Alarm

A Hermosa Beach woman who was awakened in the middle of the night by sounds she believed were made by an intruder shot off the tip of her own finger with a revolver she keeps under her pillow, authorities said.

The sounds, it turned out, came from the woman’s 20-year-old daughter, who had gotten up to go to the bathroom, police said.

The 43-year-old woman, whom police refused to name because they “didn’t want to embarrass her any further,” said she forgot that her daughter was home from college when she was awakened at about 1:30 a.m. Wednesday, Hermosa Beach Police Cmdr. Michael Lavin said.

Disoriented and fearing she was in danger, the woman pulled out a .38-caliber, two-inch handgun that she keeps under her pillow and began firing at the bathroom, Lavin said. The first round lodged into the wall. The second time she squeezed the trigger, her left index finger strayed in front of the muzzle.

“She fired and basically blew her finger off from the middle knuckle,” Lavin said.

The daughter, who was walking back to the bedroom when her mother fired the gun, was not harmed.

She called paramedics, who took the woman to South Bay Hospital in Redondo Beach. Doctors were unable to save the top half of her finger.

After interviewing mother and daughter, investigators were satisfied the two had not been arguing. But they did chastise the woman for firing her gun without knowing where it was aimed.

“It was just a very irresponsible way of handling a handgun,” Lavin said. “The officers gave her a very stern lecture. I’m sure she felt pretty stupid about the whole thing.”