Editor's note: This story has been given a write-through after an update from the Parker County Sheriff Thursday morning.
A Parker County deputy believed to have been shot by a suspect while approaching an illegal deer blind was actually shot by his own gun in a “weapons malfunction,” the sheriff’s department said Thursday.
The deputy was responding to a request from a landowner who noticed someone trespassing on his property Monday evening. Just before 6 p.m., the deputy saw a person setting up a deer blind and was shot.
After initially searching for a suspect in the shooting, the sheriff’s department on Thursday said the gunshot wound came from “a secured backup weapon.”
“This investigation has led us down several avenues,” Parker County Sheriff Larry Fowler said in a release. “This incident was not an accidental discharge. It was a weapons malfunction from a concealed backup weapon which was secured and holstered on his person.”
Fort Worth police assisted in an "extensive" investigation and found the bullet at the scene Thursday morning. The weapon was sent to the Texas Department of Public Safety’s crime lab for testing.
No condition update was given on the deputy, but his wound was not life-threatening.