A Pennsylvania man was killed Saturday when -- after a night of drinking -- he demonstrated for his wife how to operate a semiautomatic pistol.
“I shot him,” Michele Wanko, 42, told a Parkside Police officer when authorities arrived at the house around 4:00 a.m., the Delco Times reports. Authorities found Wanko's husband, 43-year-old Michael, lying near the entrance with a gunshot wound to the upper chest.
The couple had spent the night sipping vodka and lemonade when Michele asked for a gun lesson so she could protect herself, according to CBS. They went down to the basement where Michael stored his guns in a safe as their sons, 2 and 5, slept upstairs.
“He took several of the weapons out, handguns and was demonstrating to her how the weapon worked as far as taking the magazine out, making sure it was safe, and how to pull the slide back,” said Parkside Police Chief John Egan, according to NBC Philadelphia.
Michele picked up a gun but when she pulled the slide back, as she was taught, the weapon went off, striking her husband. Michael was pronounced dead shortly after arriving at Crozer-Chester Medical Center.
"Why, after six-and-a-half hours of drinking, would you go down and handle a gun, especially with someone who never shot a weapon before?" Egan said, according to Philly.com. "The real big common denominator is the alcohol and it ended up costing him his life."
Michele was charged with involuntary manslaughter, aggravated assault and possessing an instrument of crime. The children are staying with relatives.