Police: Woman's gun goes off in car, hits boyfriend outside Rivers Casino
A shooting outside Rivers Casino in Des Plaines early Saturday turned out to be an accident where a woman's gun went off and hit her boyfriend, police said.
Ari T. Miller, 41, of the 100 block of South Waller Avenue, Chicago, was charged Monday with reckless conduct and possession of a concealed firearm under the influence of alcohol, both misdemeanors.
Miller flagged down an officer shortly before 1 a.m. Saturday in the casino parking lot and called for an ambulance because her boyfriend was shot.
The officer provided medical aid to the man, a 47-year-old Maywood resident who was wounded in his right thigh, until Des Plaines Fire Department paramedics arrived and took him to a hospital.
Both "were highly intoxicated and uncooperative," police said.
An investigation showed before the shooting, the couple and Miller's brother were listening to music and drinking alcohol in the casino parking lot.
Miller, who was in the passenger seat of her 2018 Chevrolet Equinox, had a loaded Smith & Wesson 9 mm pistol in her purse. The group decided to leave the SUV, and she took it out to place on the center console "when the gun fired striking her boyfriend in the leg," police said.
The man suffered non-life-threatening injuries, police said.
Miller has a legal concealed carry license. Her next court hearing is Dec. 1 at the Skokie courthouse.