Family narrowly escapes gunshot tragedy

GLENDALE — A bullet hole on the floor of a Glendale family’s Doran Street apartment is a small but vivid reminder of how narrowly they escaped tragedy Wednesday night.

Anashe Torosian, 19, was lying on the living-room floor of her parent’s one-bedroom, second-floor apartment about 5:30 p.m. when she suddenly heard an explosion and sensed something fly past her face.

When she looked down at the floor she saw a small object, so she picked it up. It was hot to the touch.

Seconds later, her father, Soltan Torosian, walked into the apartment and she gave him the object — a stray bullet.

“We are so lucky,” she said Thursday. “I never thought it was something like a gunshot. I thought something broke.”

Anashe Torosian’s mother, Heranoush Torosian, was seated at a table when the bullet entered the floor about 18 inches away before it ricocheted off a cabinet and landed on the floor.

“When she thought it may have killed her, she got scared,” Anashe Torosian said.

The bullet came from the first-floor apartment of 42-year-old Darren Moses, police said.

Moses told police that he been drinking vodka all day because he had the day off from work, according to Glendale police reports.

He was in his apartment living room trying place his .40-caliber Smith and Wesson handgun in a plastic case when the gun fell and discharged, according to police.

Moses reportedly told police he “freaked out” and walked outside his apartment to see if anyone was hurt, but when no one appeared to be injured, he returned to his apartment and “tried to play this one off,” according to an incident report.

But by then, the apartment manager had already notified police.

Moses was arrested on suspicion of discharging the weapon, but he told police he didn’t remember squeezing the trigger and reportedly apologized several times.

Moses was booked into the Glendale police jail, where he is being held in lieu of $250,000 bail.

The shooting didn’t appear to be intentional, Glendale Police Sgt. Tom Lorenz said.

Still, the Torosian family said the incident could have had a tragic ending.

“It could have killed both of them,” said an uncle, Torkom Torosian.