Man shoots father-in-law at gun show, Cedar Park Police say

My Fox Austin

In what Cedar Park Police believe to be an unintentional shooting, a man shot and killed his father-in-law Saturday at a gun show in Cedar Park.

Stephen Sheftall is a frequent gun show attendee.  On Saturday he went to the Austin Premiere Gun Show at Cedar Park Center.

“It was pretty uneventful, I mean everybody was calm going in and professional handling the weapons that I saw.  So I’m not entirely sure how it even happened,” he said.

He’s referring to a shooting that happened hours after he left.

When Cedar Park Police got to the scene Saturday around 5, they found 59-year-old John Glover Warden injured from a single gun shot wound.  Police say the man from Jarrell, Texas later died at St. David’s in Round Rock.  The department tells us the shooting happened in a car in the parking lot.  Warden’s son-in-law, Jared Priddy from Eulless was quote ‘manipulating’ the firearm after reloading it.

“If guns made you safer, no one would ever get shot accidentally. And that’s exactly what happened here yesterday,” said democratic consultant Jason Stanford.

Stanford says he supports expanded background checks and even background checks to enter a gun show.

“Some people say that guns don’t kill people, the person pulling the trigger does.  They can kill you a lot easier with a gun.  And what we need is for gun owners to take it upon themselves to work with us to be safer on this.  Because right now the status quo sure ain’t working,” he said.

Michael Cargill is the owner of Central Texas Gunworks and a licensed handgun instructor.  He realizes gun control advocates are speaking out on this.

“I know all the nay-sayers are gonna come out and they’re gonna say ‘I told you so.’  This is not ‘I told you so’ this is not ‘I gotcha.’  This is no different than this little incident we saw a day or so ago where two kids were ejected from a vehicle because they weren’t wearing a seat belt.  We don’t blame the vehicle for that incident so we’re not gonna blame the guns for this incident,” he said.

Cargill says the shooter obviously didn’t follow basic gun safety rules.  He gave us a demonstration.

“So I’m gonna remove the magazine from the handgun.  There’s a loaded magazine in here ok?  Lock the slide to the rear, observe the chamber.  There’s no round in the chamber, it’s an empty magazine.  I’m gonna keep my finger off the trigger.  I’m not gonna point the gun at you because I’m showing you the gun!  I’m gonna point it in a safe direction.  Do not point that gun at anything you do not intend to kill or destroy,” Cargill said.

Cedar Park Police say they don’t think this shooting was intentional. They say if anyone has information, please call Cedar Park Police.

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