Inset: Clarence Bodiford (Pinellas County Sheriff's Office). Background: The area in Green Valley, Ariz., where Clarence Bodiford allegedly shot two people at a yard sale (Google Maps).
An Arizona man showing off a gun he was trying to sell at a yard sale wound up shooting a person in their colon and another in the hand, groin and leg, according to police.
Clarence Bodiford, 61, immediately fled the scene after accidentally opening fire on the two victims as they were shopping at a yard sale he was having in the Pima County community of Green Valley, police say. Bodiford went on the run for more than two months before being caught in Florida this week and arrested. He is facing two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
An arrest affidavit obtained by Law&Crime says one of the victims told police that the shooting "was an accident but it was also reckless." Bodiford was "manipulating" a gun he was trying to sell and "showing a safety function" on it when the firearm went off, the affidavit alleges.
Bodiford was allegedly showing the gun to a group of landscapers who were working next door to the residence where the yard sale was taking place and had walked over to ask if any guns were for sale. The home belongs to Bodiford's friend.
"Clarence retrieved the firearm from his car and emptied the ammunition in the firearm," the affidavit recounts. "[One of the victims] stated he could see the gun was empty and he [Bodiford] showed them. The gun was passed around the group for them to see and when Clarence now had the gun once again at some point Clarence put ammunition back into the gun."
While Bodiford was "manipulating" the weapon, it discharged and struck the two victims, according to the affidavit. "Clarence then fled the scene in his white 1997 GMC Safari," the document alleges.
Police say one of the victims suffered a "substantial wound" after a bullet went through his right hand, through his groin, and then entered his thigh and exited his leg. The other victim got hit with bullet shrapnel that became "lodged into his colon," according to the affidavit.
The two men, who had been transplanting a saguaro cactus next door, were treated at a local hospital.
In addition to aggravated assault, Bodiford is facing a charge of possession of a deadly weapon by a prohibited possessor because he is a convicted felon who is not supposed to have any firearms. Police have not released details about his previous conviction.
Bodiford is awaiting extradition to Arizona.
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