Man Shoots Himself, Neighbor

PANORAMA CITY —  A 23-year-old man playing with a loaded gun accidentally shot himself and a wheelchair-bound woman in the apartment directly below his, police said Tuesday.

Raymond Serrano was watching TV in his living room in the 8400 block of Tobias Avenue on Monday night with a cocked and loaded .38 caliber revolver in his waistband, said Sgt. Brad Kubela, of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Van Nuys Division.

“He said he found the gun in his yard, in the bushes,” Kubela said. “Then he wants to play Wyatt Earp in the living room. He would cock it, point it, cock it, point it.”

When he stood up too quickly, Kubela said, the gun discharged and a bullet hit Serrano in the thigh, went through the floor and struck his downstairs neighbor in the wrist.

Neither was critically injured, Kubela said.

“A weapon is not a toy and he should not have been playing around with it, especially if it’s loaded,” Kubela said.