It was the last thing Brian Turnbull expected as he was driving on Territorial Drive Monday near the intersections of Douglas Avenue and Wearing Road. A bullet hit the windshield of his truck.
It came from no pellet gun, says Turnbull, who is a hunter and knows his weapons.
It came from a high-powered rifle, from up to a mile away.
Turnbull, who had his window open, did not hear a shot, but he heard the distinctive whine of a bullet before it hit the window. It grazed off, he said, but shattered glass flew about the cab of the truck, some of it striking his face.
There was no other traffic in the area, and he looked around but could see no shooter. So he drove directly to the RCMP detachment to report what happened. This was shortly after 2 p.m.
The RCMP did not take it lightly, says Turnbull, and dispatched members to the area almost at once.
Turnbull says the RCMP agree the damage to the windshield indicates the bullet came from somewhere on to the east of Territorial drive – from the area of the countryside, not from the residential area. Its trajectory was slightly downward, says Turnbull, which means it was nearing the end of its journey, but the divot clearly shows the bullet was not tumbling.
All of this means, that despite the fact that it was close to spent, it could still have been lethal had it struck but one foot behind. At the least, he could have been seriously wounded.
He did have a doctor check out the scratches on his face to make sure no damage had been done to his eyes. Thankfully, he says, everything is fine.
While it is almost certain he wasn’t being targeted, with his truck travelling at 80 km/h and a bullet traveling even faster, Turnbull doesn’t like to think what a difference a fraction of a second might have made.
