SAN ANTONIO — Investigators say an off-duty Bexar County jailer shot himself in the hand with a shotgun during a party for his 26th birthday.
Bexar County Det. Louis Antu said Eric Espino shot himself in the right hand at a residence in the 2300 block of Marilyn Kay early Monday morning.
San Antonio police responded to the west-side home around 4 a.m.
"It was his own birthday party -- he was having a party -- and he had some fellow county employees there with him along with some civilians there at the scene," Antu said. "And unfortunately it was a self inflicting wound with a shot gun."
Antu said that Espino was showing off his shotgun when it somehow went off, shooting him in the hand.
He was taken to University Hospital, where he spent most of the day in the operating room. As of Monday night, he was in stable condition.
Espino is a detention officer for the Bexar County Jail in downtown San Antonio. Antu said he has been with the county for about five years.
