MOUNDSVILLE, W.Va. --
The Marshall County Sheriff's Department says two employees were injured when a gun they were working on accidentally discharged.
Chief Deputy Kevin Cecil said that the accident occurred Monday evening before the deputies midnight shift at one deputy's home, which also has a gunsmithing shop.
Cecil tells NEWS9 both deputies are also armorers for the department and have specialized training in firearm repair.
He said a department-owned gun malfunctioned and discharged while the deputies were working on it.
Sheriff John Gruzinskas said one of the deputies was supposed to qualify with his gun this morning, so last night he was cleaning it, when a spring broke.
The two were working on the gun-- a .45-caliber glock semi-automatic, when the gun accidentally fired. It hit one deputy in the hand, and hit the other in the hand and the hip. They were both rushed to Wheeling Hospital.
Gruzinskas said the deputy with only the hand injury was released last night. The other deputy is still in the hospital, in stable condition.
Gruzinskas said the department has started looking into whether there was some kind of break down in protocol that led to this.
"This is a violent event so we want to make sure that our policy was followed when this was being performed on this broken sidearm," said Gruzinskas.
Being down two deputies means that in order to cover the road patrols, some deputies will have to come from other divisions, like the detective division to work the streets.
Authorities want to be sure that the county is still protected while they look into what happened.
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