Accidental Shooting Leads to Felony Charges Against Byron Man

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Rochester, MN (KROC-AM News) - The Olmsted County Attorney's Office has filed felony charges against a Byron man who accidentally shot himself last fall.

26-year-old Daniel Sorensen is scheduled to make his first court appearance next month on felony charges of reckless discharge of a firearm within a municipality and illegal possession of a firearm. He also faces a gross misdemeanor count of possession of a pistol without a permit.

According to the criminal complaint, Olmsted County Sheriff's Deputies responded to a medical call at a home in Byron on the night of October 19, 2021, and found Sorensen bleeding from a gunshot wound to his leg. A witness at the scene told the deputies Sorensen had called her earlier in the evening and said he had shot himself and was a minute away from her home.

While Sorensen was being transported by ambulance to St. Marys Hospital for treatment, another witness told the deputies he had seen a gun holster on the driver’s side floor of the vehicle Sorensen had been driving. The deputies then found a 9 mm handgun on the passenger side floor and discovered it was jammed with a live 9 mm round. After removing the round, the deputies found a spent shell casing under the driver's side seat and located a bullet hole in the driver's door panel.

The court document says Sorensen later told investigators he was driving the vehicle in Byron when he decided to shoot the gun into a cornfield and accidentally pulled the trigger when he pulled back on the slide and the gun began to slip out of his hand. The bullet hit the tip of the little finger on his left him before it traveled through Sorensen's left leg and into the driver's side door of the vehicle.