Prineville man shot by dropped, stolen handgun

(Update: Police ID shooting victim; name corrected; police say he dropped loaded, stolen handgun)

A Prineville man who showed up at the hospital with a gunshot wound to the leg late Thursday night at first told police he was a drive-by shooting victim, but later admitted he had dropped a loaded, stolen handgun in his apartment and it went off, police said.

Police Chief Dale Cummins said officers responded to St. Charles Prineville around 11 p.m. on the report of a gunshot victim in the emergency room.

Richard A. Keen III was treated for a single gunshot wound to the leg and released, Cummins said.

Keen at first claimed he was the victim of a drive-by shooting, but “evidence at the scene did not support the statements” he made, Cummins said in an updated news release.

Keen, who is on post-prison supervision, cannot legally possess a firearm. and “finally admitted he dropped a loaded handgun in his apartment, which negligently discharged, striking him in the leg,” the police chief said.

The .45-caliber 1911 handgun was recovered by police and was found to have been reported stolen from Redmond.

The investigation is continuing, Cummins said, “but it is apparent that Mr. Keen was the only one injured in this incident.” Once the investigation is complete, it will be forwarded to the district attorney for review, the chief said.

Online court records show Keen pleaded guilty in Crook County in January 2017 to methamphetamine possession and was sentenced to 18 months supervised probation, which was revoked in July of that year. He then was sentenced to four months in jail, though the judge said he could spend the second two months in a residential treatment facility.

Keen also pleaded guilty in 2016 to heroin and meth possession and received 24 days in jail and two years probation. The records show charges in previous years in Deschutes and Jefferson counties of meth and marijuana possession and delivery and DUII.