When a minor gunshot wound just won’t do: ‘I can’t believe I missed’

The bullet grazed the target's thigh, leaving a nasty gash but not a life-threatening wound.

And the man police say fired the gun inside a Key West home Friday night freely admitted the blood was his handiwork.

"I shot him," said William Lansford, a private investigator from Leisure City, according to police reports released this week. "I can't believe I missed. I did not mean to miss."

Lansford, 58, posted a $50,000 bond by 7:20 p.m. Saturday and walked out of the county jail on Stock Island. He faces two felony charges: aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and use of a weapon during a felony.

Police arrived to find Lansford, who had called 911 at 8:49 p.m. to report he had shot at someone, waiting for them outside the house at 713 Southard St. in downtown Key West. Officers relieved him of a loaded pistol — a Walther PPK 9mm Kurz with one round in the chamber — stashed inside his shorts' pocket.

The wounded, William Selesnick, 64, an artist who gave the Monroe County Sheriff's Office a Stuart address, refused to be taken to the hospital, police said.

Selesnick was treated at the scene for a gunshot wound to his thigh that left a five- to seven-inch gash along the inside of his left thigh, Officer Matthew Hansell reported.

Selesnick had been arrested the day before on suspicion of marijuana possession. He was released about four hours later on $328 bond.

Lansford told police he shot Selesnick while trying to break up a fight.

"Lansford said Selesnick attacked him but did not hit him very hard," Hansell wrote in his report.

Selesnick, a painter for 40 years whose latest work includes a self-published coffee-table book of his Florida lighthouse paintings, said he had been living at the Southard Street home for one day, police reported. He identified a different man at the home as the gunman but didn't know the person's name.

Kyle Coohey, 46, who police records say lives in the house, said he found Selesnick upstairs throwing food around a bedroom and tried to kick him out of the house, police said. Coohey said he saw Selesnick "lunge" at Lansford but added, "He does not know what happened, but knew the guy got shot," reports stated.

The home's owner, John Allen Gunn, 76, who Lansford called his partner, told police Selesnick was fighting with Coohey when "airhead" appeared in the doorway.

By "airhead," Gunn said he meant Lansford, whose name is also on the property deed.

This story was originally published April 27, 2016 at 12:40 PM with the headline "When a minor gunshot wound just won’t do: ‘I can’t believe I missed’."