Man gets shot in tussle over shooting rats

To quote from a news report out of West Virginia:

The Hancock County, WV, Sheriff's Office reported that around 1:00 AM Wednesday, they received a call about a man shot on Harrison Street in Newell. The initial report suggested the person was injured in a gun cleaning accident.

When deputies arrived, they found two men and a woman in the residence.  The victim, holding a blood-soaked towel to his head, was standing at the top of the stairs with the woman and the other man. EMTs treated the man for what appeared to be a gunshot wound to the head. He was taken to East Liverpool City Hospital and subsequently transferred to UPMC in Pittsburgh; he was in stable condition when transferred.

Deputies questioned the other man and woman and determined the incident was not a gun cleaning accident. Instead, they found that the two men had been shooting at rats outside a second-story window using a small-caliber rifle. The shooting occurred when the men were struggling to get the rifle from each other, causing it to discharge and strike the victim in the head.