BY KEITH EPPS

For the second time in less than three weeks, Fredericksburg police have arrested a city resident for firing a shot into a neighboring apartment.

The latest incident was reported at 10:40 a.m. Tuesday at the Commons at Cowan Boulevard next to the police station, city police spokeswoman Natatia Bledsoe said.

A resident called authorities after his 5-year-old son pointed out a hole in the master bedroom wall. Officer Betsy Mason found the bullet lodged in a dresser and determined that it had come from the adjacent apartment.

No one was at the apartment, but Mason found out who lived there and contacted him at work. The resident returned home and gave police permission to search his vehicle and his apartment, Bledsoe said. Three guns were found in the apartment and one in the vehicle, and all of them were seized.

Bledsoe said the investigation revealed that the shot was actually fired about 1 a.m. Tuesday. The shooter acknowledged that he was handling the gun when it discharged but didn't explain how it happened.

Bledsoe said no one called police or checked on the residents in the apartment that was shot into. The resident and his wife were sleeping in the room when the shot was fired, and apparently didn't realize anything had happened.

Alexander Furgason, 25, was charged Tuesday with reckless handling of a firearm, and released by a magistrate. A felony charge of shooting into an occupied dwelling was added Wednesday, and Furgason was jailed under a $2,500 bond.

A similar incident took place Sept. 29 at the River Woods apartments on Woodlyn Drive. A resident woke up and found a bullet hole in his living room floor. That man told police that he heard what sounded like fireworks early that morning, but didn't realize anything was amiss until he got up later in the morning.

A man who lived in apartment below the victim has been charged. As in the latest case, no one was hurt and no one checked on the potential victims after the shooting.

Keith Epps: 540/374-5404
Email: kepps@freelancestar.com