Nearby gun range denies any involvement

NAMPA -- A Nampa man is concerned for his safety after he finds bullet holes and fragments inside his home.

David Hills lives just a half mile from an outdoor gun range, but investigators say there is no evidence leading them to believe that's where the stray bullets came from.

From his backyard you can see the softball size hole in David Hills' window -- the result of someone's stray bullet.

Thursday morning Hills woke up to take a shower and found something unexpected.

"At first I didn't know what it was, and then I looked on the other side of the wall, and there's two holes, two bullets," said Hills.

David lives on top of a hill, about a half mile from the Nampa Rod and Gun Club outdoor shooting range, and the trajectory of the bullet holes leads him to believe it came from the range, but says he can't prove it.

"My property is adjacent to theirs and unless somebody walked on some property between them and us, and point blank shot our house, it's not very likely," said Hills.

Canyon County Sheriff's Office is investigating the incident and Sgt. Eron Sloan says they are at a standstill.

"At this point our hands are tied. We don't have any way to determine, with the evidence at the scene where that bullet did come from," said Sloan.

Sloan says they had a deputy speak to everyone shooting at the range when the accident was believed to have happened, and no one is stepping forward to claim the bullet.

"Two bullets came in here, and broke those two panes of glass. Came through a shade, and then through our valance and then across the room and entered in over here on right here, and right there," said Hills.

Investigators don't deny the damage; they say they just can't find who did it.

"There's no criminal intent to damage any property, there's no malicious injury to property. Vandalism was the call we went to. Was it a person who pointed a gun straight at the window and did it on purpose? We don't think so," said Sloan.

Hills says there have been other incidents in the past with the gun club and stray bullets. He just wants to see an overhang built so this type of thing won't be able to happen again.

President of the Nampa Rod and Gun Club Joanne Bradford says the club has operated its shooting range in a safe manner for more than 70 years.

In a statement issued Wednesday, she also says:

"The Nampa Rod & Gun Club's opinion is that it has not and could not be determined that any bullet coming from the shooting ranges at the Nampa Rod & Gun Club have ever hit the Hills' residence. This is true for the incident which was reported on 11/14/08 and the two other prior incidents that occurred within days of each other several years ago."