TULALIP — A woman’s lung was punctured Saturday when she was shot in the back with what police believe was an air rifle or BB gun.
The woman, 40, said she was wounded by her boyfriend. He was later arrested for investigation of felony first-degree assault.
The projectile punched a hole in the woman’s back and left her with blood in her lungs, requiring hospital treatment, according to a police report that Tulalip Tribal police filed in Everett District Court.
Aid crews were called to a home in the 6000 block of Lois Madison Drive after the woman complained that she was having difficulty breathing.
She said her boyfriend, 47, had become angry that night and initially locked her outside. She resolved to leave, and was shot in the back.
The man then drove away from the scene.
At the hospital, police provided the woman with information about domestic violence resources, including protection orders.
Air rifles can deliver a BB, pellet or other projectile with sufficient power to cause serious injury or death.
In 2013, a Lynnwood woman was charged with murder after she fired a BB into the chest of a man, using an air rifle she typically used to scare rats.
The victim, 52, died in the back of an ambulance before an aid crew could get him to a hospital. The woman later pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to two years in prison.
Scott North: 425-339-3431; north@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @snorthnews.
