Gun shot accidentally at Arlington Cemetery before Obama's Memorial Day speech
Updated: May 30, 9:30 a.m. ET
A handgun discharged accidentally at Arlington National Cemetery Monday, an hour and a half before President Obama laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns for Memorial Day.
ARLNow.com first reported the legally-owned gun was in an active duty service member's car in the cemetery's parking lot before it fired. He was trying to move the gun from under the seat when it fell to the ground, injuring his mother in the leg, Sharon Walker, spokeswoman for Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall (JBM-HH), told CBSNews.com.
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In a statement to JBM-HH, the serviceman said the shooting was an accident. Military law charges, under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, are pending so the name of the gun owner wasn't released. Police confiscated his gun as evidence, Walker said.
Weapons are banned at the cemetery, Arlington National Cemetery public affairs officer Jennifer Lynch told CBSNews.com.
Gun-grazed, the man's mother went to George Washington University Hospital with a non-life threatening wound.
Mr. Obama visited the cemetery later Monday and delivered a speech in honor of fallen service members following the wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknowns.