ST. PETERSBURG, FLA. — A St. Petersburg documented gang member who cannot lawfully possess a firearm was arrested after he shot himself in the leg on Tuesday while trying to buy a gun, police officials said.
Byron Bryant, 40, who is out on bond from committing robbery and aggravated battery in May, was charged with felonious possession of a firearm.
Bryant, a documented gang member, according to a St. Petersburg Police Department report, has numerous felony convictions and cannot lawfully possess a firearm.
Bryant went to a hospital with a gunshot wound to his inner thigh on Tuesday. He claimed that he was shot by an acquaintance outside of a business on 5th Avenue North.
However, multiple witnesses interviewed said no robbery occurred. One witness said they were just outside the business when they heard the gunshot and saw Bryant holding his leg and “yelling that he had shot himself,” the report stated. He then ran toward a vehicle.
There was no hole in Bryant’s pants, but he did have one in his underwear, which indicated that the gun fired from within his pants, police officials said. The shot was fired at a downward angle and the bullet lodged behind his knee, an arrest affidavit stated.
Bryant later admitted that he was in the process of buying the gun when he shot himself, the report stated.
He was booked into the Pinellas County Jail on no bond.
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