Arkansas mayor accidentally fires rifle seized by police, shattering city hall window

An Arkansas mayor admitted this week that he had accidentally fired a rifle inside city hall, shattering a window.

Flippin James “J.J.” Hudson told the Baxter Bulletin that nine days after he fired the rifle that had been seized by police, the incident had been "all been taken care of; it’s all been cleaned up."

“I’m not going to have any further comment on it,” he said.

But according to the paper, the shards of glass could still be seen over the entrance of city hall and the window had still not been repaired.

Flippin Police Chief Dusty Smith explained what happened last Monday in a police report: "I was in my office located at 239 East Main St in Flippin speaking with someone on the phone. Mayor Hudson came to my office and picked up a firearm that was in my office."

"I heard a loud shot and looked up and observed the southeast corner window of my office broken," Smith wrote. "Mayor Hudson stated that the firearm had went off. Mayor Hudson advised me that he was attempting to unload the firearm and that the ammunition in it had jammed."

The police chief said that no one had been hurt in the shooting and that Public Works Director Steven Berg "noticed the pavement just east of the intersection of Third and Main was disturbed."

[Stock photo: The chief accountant armed with a rifle vi aShutterstock]