General Holiefield, 60, and Monica Morgan, 50, wed just 14 months ago.
Details are surfacing in the incident involving UAW Vice President General Holiefield, who wounded his wife at their Harrison Township home in late December in a gun-cleaning accident. The victim is noted freelance photojournalist Monica Morgan.
Elisha Anderson of the Detroit Free Press, citing a 15-page report from the Macomb County Sheriff's Office, reports that Holiefield said he wasn't sure what happened and may have touched his gun's trigger.
Holiefield pleaded pleaded no contest to reckless use of a firearm on Wednesday, the Freep reported.
Anderson wrote:
Holiefield, 60, told police he was sitting at the kitchen table the night of Dec. 30 and his wife, Monica Morgan, was to his left when the gun went off and she screamed. Holiefield, who is left-handed, had picked up his .45-caliber pistol with his right hand to clean it and attempted to pull back the slide with his left hand when it went off.
“Maybe I touched the trigger,” Holiefield told deputies who responded to the accidental shooting. He said it was his gun, and he shot his wife, the report said.
According to the police report, a witness at the home looked up and heard Holiefield say: "Oh my God. What did I do?”
The report stated that Holiefield was hysterical and kept saying: ‘I just shot my baby, oh my God.’ ”
The couple wed in September 2012.
Morgan, who covered Nelson Mandela's funeral two weeks before being shot, is expected to fully recover after abdominal surgery. -- A.L.
Earlier coverage:
Monica Morgan Says She Has 'No Permanent Damage' From Gun Mishap, Jan. 12
Monica Morgan, A Prominent Photographer, Is Hospitalized After Gun Mishap, Jan. 1
