Nebraska Police say dog triggered shotgun blast that hit woman sitting at traffic light

A shooting on May 23 captured national attention as details emerged about what happened at a convenience store at 2002 Avenue I in Scottsbluff, Nebraska. A dog shot a woman with a shotgun — luckily, however, the injury was not life-threatening.

Gun violence is a crisis in the United States. It has been for many years. There have been mass shootings because someone had a bad Monday, school shootings, and multiple shootings at political events. For some people, that’s a cost they are willing to pay to preserve their constitutional rights.

However, guns also have an entirely seldom-discussed element that has very little to do with intentionality or laws. Sometimes, children — and in this case, animals — gain access to weapons they simply have no understanding of. Every so often, a story from some corner of the country goes viral about a minor who gained access to a gun and harmed themselves, often fatally. There’s a worthwhile discussion to be had about whether the lack of emotional regulation and understanding of consequences in adolescents might actually play a major role in school shootings.

The Scottsbluff Police Department responded to a call at a convenience store that revealed, at least for police, that no two days are ever truly alike. According to KNOP News, officers initially believed someone had been shot with a BB gun at 12:07 p.m.

However, police received an update while in transit that the shot had actually come from a shotgun. Understandably worried about the higher caliber weapon, first responders prepared for something serious. Little did they know that what awaited them would be even stranger than anything they could have imagined. Officers discovered that a dog stuck in the back of a truck had fired a shotgun, striking a nearby woman who was sitting in her car at a traffic light.

The truck owner, whose dog was involved in the shooting, had reportedly stopped at the convenience store. In the backseat, there was a dog on one side and a shotgun loaded with a live shell on the other. While the owner was inside the store, the dog presumably started moving around near the gun and somehow fired it through the passenger-side door panel.

When police arrived at the scene, they found visible blast damage on the vehicle. Nearby, at the traffic light on Avenue I, a woman had been struck by one pellet from the shotgun. Reportedly, the woman had one arm resting outside her window when the shot was fired — luckily, that ended up being the only injury she suffered. A family member reportedly drove her to Regional West Medical Center, where she received treatment for minor injuries.

Police are still investigating the shooting. Under Nebraska law, carrying a loaded shotgun in a vehicle while driving on a highway is actually illegal, so the case remains ongoing. After learning that nobody suffered serious injuries, people on social media began joking that the incident was a reverse Kristi Noem scenario.

I guess it's a "reverse Kristi Noem" situation? 🫪

— james (@midnightbobarun) May 26, 2026

Ultimately, however, everyone can just be grateful that nobody was seriously harmed.