Man shot in face after late-night argument

By DUANE SHERRILL / Staff Reporter for the Southern Standard

MC COY

A man was shot in the face in the early hours Sunday morning following an altercation which broke out at a party on McQuade Circle near Centertown.

The victim, Michael Johnson, is recovering from a single gunshot wound to the jaw which prompted his hospitalization at Vanderbilt. Lawmen say he was able to leave the scene of the shooting under his own power despite being shot at point-blank range with a .25 caliber handgun. The impact of the small-caliber round fractured Johnson’s jaw but clipped no major organs before it exited his face.

Witnesses say the host of the party and resident of the McQuade Circle home, Chris McCoy, 32, was the one who pulled the trigger. He is charged with aggravated assault, a crime which carries three to six years in prison. He was given an Oct. 25 preliminary hearing date yesterday by Judge Larry Ross during his arraignment in General Sessions Court. He remains held at Warren County Jail in lieu of bond.

While an altercation between the men led to the shooting, the underlying cause of the friction between the two, who had reportedly never met prior to Sunday morning, remains up for debate.

According to the victim, the incident began when he went to pick up someone at McCoy’s home. While there, Johnson maintains his girlfriend had a drink and suddenly became sleepy and laid down in the bedroom. Johnson maintains he could not wake up his girlfriend, prompting him to suspect she had been drugged or, in some circles, slipped a Mickey. It was the Mickey allegation which, in the victim’s story, caused the argument between the men.

However, McCoy’s version claims Johnson and his girlfriend brought marijuana to his house to sell him and that during the visit Johnson and his girlfriend got into a fight and Johnson went out of control. A subsequent standoff between McCoy and Johnson prompted Johnson to say he was going to get a gun and “take care” of the situation. It was at that point McCoy said, fearing for his own safety, he pulled his .25 caliber from his pocket and shot Johnson at a range of about two feet. He said he had pulled the gun from his nightstand earlier when he believed trouble was about to erupt. The shooting happened inside a bedroom.

Lawmen say there were witnesses to the incident, however, their statements vary as to who was the instigator of the altercation.