Alleged intruder gets shot in groin

An intoxicated Idaho man was shot in the groin on Saturday night after refusing orders to leave private property near Hillyard, authorities said.

Christopher Lee Antonelli, 23, of Spirit Lake, reportedly had been trying to force his way inside the home in the 8300 block of North Julia Street just before midnight.

The 64-year-old resident of the home told a 911 operator that he had fired a warning shot and wasn’t sure if the man was struck.

When two Spokane County sheriff’s deputies arrived, they found Antonelli down on his hands and knees but refusing deputies’ orders.

He was stung with a Taser and then handcuffed.

Paramedics found the small bullet wound after noticing blood on his pants.

Antonelli had been celebrating a friend’s birthday that night but got off the chartered party bus when it stopped in north Spokane to let out a couple of other revelers, according to the Sheriff’s Office.

It’s unclear how he made his way to the Julia Street home.

The resident and two other family members were sleeping when his dogs started barking and he spotted a man in his side yard.

The man tried to push his way into the home when the shot was fired, sheriff’s Sgt. Dave Reagan said.

Antonelli told friends Monday in a posting to a social networking website that he was drunk at the time and thought it was a buddy’s house, adding that he was met at the door by the armed occupant who put the gun to his stomach and pulled the trigger.

“It was a lucky shot,” he said in the posting on his Facebook page.

He was treated at a Spokane hospital for the gunshot wound, then released.

The case remains under investigation, the Sheriff’s Office said.