Florida Man Accidentally Shoots Self While Showing Off Gun To Bar Patrons

A Florida man accidentally shot himself while showing off his gun to patrons in a Pensacola bar.

The incident took place Thursday at around 11 p.m. when Carlos Feituuaki Tuifua, 28, allegedly pulled out a handgun and proceeded to show it off to a woman and a man he was conversing with at the O’Riley’s Uptown Tavern in Pensacola.

According to the bar's surveillance footage, Tuifua made a quick motion with his hand as if putting the gun beneath his left shoulder into a pretend holster. The gun discharged at that moment and the bullet injured his upper torso, reported the Pensacola News Journal.

Pensacola Police Department spokesman Greg Gordon said that a bar patron flagged down a police officer on routine patrol on Creighton Road after the gun went off. As the police started investigating inside, a fight broke out between patrons outside the bar’s main building. Police at the scene intervened to de-escalate the situation. The fight was not related to the shooting, said police.

"I don't know if he was pretending to be a badass or something," Warren Sonnen, the bar’s manager, told the Journal. "But from what I can tell, it was completely by accident."

The man left the bar moments later and checked himself into a hospital, leading the police to identify him.

Tuifua is said to be recovering from his wound and was arrested Friday from his home, reported WEAR-TV. He was charged with improper exhibition of a weapon and carrying a concealed weapon without a permit.

In a similar incident earlier this month, a 15-year-old teenager who was showing off a gun to his 13-year-old friend during a night out accidentally shot and killed him in Utah. The teenagers allegedly sneaked out of their respective residences and met at a church parking lot where the gun was accidentally discharged. Police believe that the 15-year-old did not intend to kill his friend and had called 911 immediately after the incident.

According to Education to Stop Gun Violence, a non-profit organization (NPO), about 1.2 % of total gun deaths in 2019 were due to unintentional firearm injuries. The NPO suggests avoiding alcohol while handling a gun.