Carson City investigators spent Thursday chasing leads in a westside shooting that left a Carson City man with minor injuries after he was hit in the chest with bird shot.
Nathan Richardson, 22, arrived at Carson-Tahoe Hospital about 11:30 p.m. with a gunshot wound to the chest. He was taken by helicopter to Washoe Medical Center, where he was treated and released.
According to Detective Bob Motamenpour of the Carson City Sheriff's Department, Richardson and his girlfriend Jessica Simpson, 18, and about three others were in her apartment at 701 W. Telegraph St. when Simpson left to check on clothes in the laundryroom.
As Richardson was in the bathroom getting ready to go out, a man in a ski mask confronted him at gunpoint, said Motamenpour.
"One of them pointed a gun at him and said, 'This is for Sergio,'" he said. When Richardson tried to smack the weapon away, the man fired a shot, striking Richardson in the chest. Another man in a mask held the others in the apartment at gunpoint, said Sgt. Bob White.
Both men fled the scene.
Motamenpour said the bullet, a type of bird shot, caused several puncture wounds in Richardson's chest and arm, but were not life-threatening.
"If this were a real bullet, it would have killed him," he said.
During the investigation, Simpson gave police permission to search her apartment, where police allegedly found 34.5 grams of marijuana packaged for sale.
Simpson was booked into the Carson City Jail on suspicion of possession of marijuana with intent to sell. Her bail was set at $7,500.
Anyone with information is asked to call the Carson City Sheriff's Department's detective division at 887-2020, ext. 1400.
n Contact reporter F.T. Norton at ftnorton@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1213.
