APD: 1 charged after 'recklessly' handled gun leads to man's death

AUSTIN (KXAN) — An Austin man faces a manslaughter charge after police said he "recklessly" handled a gun and it went off, shooting and killing another man.

Twenty-year-old Eric House died Jan. 10 after being rushed to the hospital with a gunshot wound in his neck. Someone called 911 at 7:43 p.m., urging responders to hurry to the apartment on the 2000 block of Willow Creek Drive and saying "he accidentally got shot."

The officer who wrote up the affidavit said when he arrived, a man later identified as Alden Guillory, 21, "frantically ran toward him." According to the search warrant, he directed officers to the apartment. He was "covered in blood," the affidavit said. Guillory faces a manslaughter charge. No lawyer is listed online for him at this time.

A witness and Guillory told police they and House had been in the apartment and Guillory wanted to show them his gun, which he had bought in December. He ejected the magazine from the gun, re-inserted it, chambered a round, ejected the magazine, removed the round and pulled the trigger, repeating the sequence for 10-20 minutes, the affidavit said.

Eventually, Guillory said he set down the gun, and minutes later picked it up and it fired, hitting House.

Guillory told police he usually keeps the gun in his dresser, "with the magazine separate from the pistol." The witness told police he had seen Guillory "manipulate the pistol several times before and believed he was a competent gun user."

Officers found the gun on the floor of the apartment, along with a fired cartridge case.

A police press release noted Guillory handled "a firearm recklessly." It also said he stayed on the scene and cooperated with police.