(This story was updated to add new information.)
A 20-year-old woman was in stable condition at UPMC Hamot Thursday after Erie police said she was shot in the face by her boyfriend at an East 22nd Street residence on Wednesday night.
The boyfriend is now facing felony aggravated assault and other charges in the incident, which the victim said was an accident, according to investigators.
The shooting was reported on Wednesday at about 7:50 p.m., when city police officers were sent to the 700 block of East 22nd Street to investigate a report of a gunshot victim. Officers found the woman in a second-floor bedroom with a gunshot wound to the face, police reported.
Investigators said the woman’s boyfriend, 25-year-old Nicholas T. Chastang, identified his Kel-Tek .22-caliber pistol as the weapon used. When detectives interviewed Chastang, he said he pointed the firearm at the woman and pulled the trigger. He also told investigators it was a common occurrence in their daily activities, as he and the woman have both pointed unloaded firearms at each other and pulled the trigger, detectives wrote in the criminal complaint filed against Chastang on Thursday.