Teen charged after accidental shooting allegedly trying to get cat to chase gun's laser sight when weapon fired

 A 19-year-old woman was using a handgun’s laser sight as a cat toy when she accidentally shot a friend, according to prosecutors

Jashanti Pleasant, 19, of Kenosha, was charged Thursday with injury by negligent use of a weapon.

The shooting happened in an apartment on the 4000 block of 45th Street at about 4:15 p.m. Tuesday.

According to the criminal complaint, Pleasant was with three people visiting in an apartment, including a 21-year-old man who had brought a 9mm handgun with him, setting it on a dresser.

The complaint states that a witness who was at the apartment said Pleasant, who had been drinking, picked up the handgun “turned on the laser sight and was pointing it at the floor to get the cat to chase it.”

The 21-year-old man was standing in a doorway. The witness said she heard the gun go off and saw the man “stand there in shock for a second and then he asked Ms. Pleasant if she had shot him.”

The man left, went into another apartment, where police found him after responding to a 911 call. He had been shot in the thigh, the bullet going all the way through his leg and hitting a stove. Police put a tourniquet on his upper leg to stop the bleeding before he was taken to Froedtert Pleasant Prairie Hospital for treatment.

The 21-year-old told police he brought the gun to the apartment and said he had put it in a nightstand and claimed he had removed the magazine. However, when police recovered the gun in the apartment it had a round in the chamber and six rounds in the magazine. “If the magazine had not been inserted into the gun when Ms. Pleasant fired the shot, there would have been no round in the chamber later when the gun was found.”

Pleasant told police she thought the magazine had been taken out of the gun and said it “accidentally went off.” She said she apologized to the man “and he told her it was okay.”

The injured man is facing charges of his own for violating bond conditions that barred him from having a weapon. He has been out of custody on bond since June 2020, charged with several counts of first degree recklessly endangering safety for his role in an incident in January 2020 when shots were fired at a home. In that case, the man allegedly drove the vehicle the men involved in the shooting used to get to the house.

Pleasant was released on a signature bond.