Man fires gun shot in his sleep, narrowly misses neighbors

Monday, Jan. 11, 1999 | 4:22 a.m.

Don Allen Thomas, 48, said he and his wife were watching "Dateline: NBC" in bed at the Craig Motel Sunday night when he heard a loud pop that caused his cat to jump high in the air.

Thomas said he saw the wall smoking, so he and his wife ran into the bathroom and telephoned the hotel manager about 8:20 p.m.

The neighbor, Octavio Orozco-Ugarte, 36, intially told responding police he had no guns in the room.

But officers discovered one handgun in the room and another in the alley below his window. They also found a hole in the wall with black residue and a hole in his bedspread with scorch marks.

They went to Thomas' room next and found a hole in two sheets and a blanket on Thomas' bed with what appeared to be the remains of a bullet in the mattress.

Orozco-Ugarte then admitted that he sleeps with a loaded gun underneath his pillow as protection, police said. He said he apparently grabbed his gun during his slumber and pulled the trigger.

Police said Orozco-Ugarte was apparently drunk, with a .148 blood alcohol level during a preliminary breath test. The legal limit is .10.

Orozco-Ugarte was arrested on a charge of discharging a firearm into a structure and booked into the Washoe County Jail where he was being held Monday in lieu of $2,500 bail.