A routine stop at a Nebraska convenience store turned into a shooting incident on the afternoon of Saturday, May 23, when a dog moving inside a parked truck triggered a loaded shotgun, sending a round through the vehicle’s door and striking a woman waiting at a nearby traffic light. The Scottsbluff Police Department has confirmed the incident and is now calling it a stark reminder of the consequences of transporting unsecured, loaded firearms — a practice that is explicitly illegal under Nebraska state law.
The Incident: A Parked Truck, a Dog, and a Loaded Chamber
Officers with the Scottsbluff Police Department were first dispatched to the scene at 12:07 p.m. after receiving a report of a person shot by what was initially described as a BB gun. While units were still en route, updated information came in clarifying that the weapon involved was a shotgun — a detail that significantly changed the nature of the call. When officers arrived, they located a truck with an attached camper parked at the convenience store. The passenger-side door of the vehicle had sustained damage consistent with a shotgun blast.
The investigation revealed a chain of events that began with the truck’s owner pulling into the store’s parking lot. The owner stepped away from the vehicle, leaving a dog unattended in the back seat. At some point while the truck was parked, the dog moved from one side of the rear seat to the other. That movement was enough to trigger a shotgun that had a live shell loaded in the chamber, causing the weapon to discharge through the door of the vehicle.
Woman Struck at Nearby Traffic Light
The blast did not stay contained to the truck. A woman stopped at a traffic light in the immediate vicinity was struck in the arm by the discharge. Scottsbluff Police confirmed her injury was not believed to be life-threatening. She was not transported by emergency services — a family member drove her to Regional West Medical Center, where she received treatment.
The truck’s owner was not present inside the vehicle when the shooting occurred, according to police, meaning the gun discharged with no human being near it, loaded, unsecured, and accessible to an animal in the back seat.
Police Issue Public Warning: Nebraska Law Prohibits This
Following the investigation, the Scottsbluff Police Department moved quickly to issue a formal public reminder about the relevant state statute.
“The Scottsbluff Police Department reminds the public that per Nebraska State Statute, it is illegal to travel with a loaded shotgun in a vehicle,” a department spokesperson said in a statement to media.
The department did not stop there, broadening its message to cover general firearm handling: “This incident also serves as an important reminder that firearm safety is of the utmost importance when handling, possessing, transporting, or maintaining any type of firearm.”
The Law: Nebraska Revised Statute 37-522
The statute at the center of this incident is Nebraska Revised Statute 37-522, codified under Chapter 37 of the Nebraska Legislature’s laws governing game and parks. The law reads plainly: “It shall be unlawful to have or carry, except as permitted by law, any shotgun having shells in either the chamber, receiver, or magazine in or on any vehicle on any highway.” The statute classifies a violation as a Class III misdemeanor, carrying a mandatory minimum fine of at least fifty dollars.
The law applies specifically to shotguns and does not extend the same blanket restriction to handguns. Nebraska generally does not require firearms in vehicles to be unloaded or locked, though the state does prohibit carrying a loaded shotgun in or on any vehicle on any highway. The relevant statute has been in place since 1998, when it was enacted as part of Laws 1998, LB 922.
Under Nebraska State Patrol guidelines, a conviction for having a loaded shotgun in a vehicle can also have downstream consequences — including disqualifying an individual from obtaining a concealed handgun permit in the state.
A Pattern: Dogs and Firearms Don’t Mix
The Scottsbluff incident is not the first time a dog has been at the center of an accidental shooting involving a firearm. In November 2025, a 53-year-old man in Shillington, Pennsylvania was shot by his own dog under similarly alarming circumstances. The man told police he had been cleaning his shotgun shortly after 11 p.m. on November 11 when he set the weapon down on his bed. One of his dogs jumped onto the mattress and caused the weapon to discharge.
“While they were responding, they were informed that a dog had jumped up onto the bed, causing the shotgun to go off, which ultimately struck the male,” Cpl. Michael Schoone of the Shillington Police Department said at the time. The victim was home with his son, who called for help. The man was transported to Reading Hospital, where he underwent surgery.
Investigation Ongoing, Charges Unclear
The Scottsbluff Police Department has confirmed the incident remains under active investigation. Authorities have not publicly indicated whether the truck’s owner — who left a loaded shotgun accessible to an animal inside a parked vehicle on a public roadway — will face charges under Nebraska Revised Statute 37-522 or any other applicable law.
What the department has made clear is the intent behind going public with the incident: to underscore that the laws governing firearm transport in Nebraska exist for reasons that events like this one make impossible to ignore. A dog shifting its weight in a back seat was all it took for a loaded weapon to discharge into a public space, injure an uninvolved bystander, and set off a police investigation that might otherwise never have been necessary.
The Broader Firearm Safety Reminder
Defense and law enforcement professionals have long emphasized that the danger of a loaded, unsecured firearm is not limited to human error — animals, vehicle vibrations, and physical impacts can all create the conditions for an unintended discharge. The Scottsbluff incident puts that principle in unusually concrete terms.
Nebraska law’s specific prohibition on loaded shotguns in vehicles reflects an acknowledgment that long guns — particularly those with rounds already chambered — present a uniquely elevated risk in mobile or semi-secured environments. The law does not require all firearms to be unloaded in transit, but it draws a firm line at shotguns, the weapon category involved in the May 23 shooting. For residents of Nebraska traveling with firearms, the incident serves as a real-world demonstration of exactly why that line was drawn.