Horsham's Comfort Inn (Image courtesy of Google StreetView)
A uniformed state constable allegedly discharged his service weapon multiple times inside a Horsham hotel, causing damages to a door, wall, and bed, police said.
According to police, on Dec. 14 around 1:11 a.m., Horsham Township Police Department was dispatched to the Comfort Inn at 245 Easton Road, in the township for the reports of shots fired. Police arrived at the hotel and were told by hotel staff that they’d heard “a single loud bang” and feared that “a guest may have shot himself,” said the police criminal complaint.
Police said that coincidentally, and on an unrelated matter, an emergency medical services crew was on the hotel’s fourth floor tending to another male guest, when a woman yelled to police from the second floor that she’d found a firearm in the hallway, on the hotel’s south side. She showed police to the weapon, and police said that they identified the gun as a Glock 22, .40 caliber semi-automatic pistol. Police said they also noticed what appeared to be a bullet hole in the door of room 217.
According to the criminal complaint, police asked that the hotel staff permit admittance into the room to be sure that there was no injured party inside. Police said that the room was unoccupied, but that there was “damage to two different sides of the bathroom wall and a bed,” which was suspected to have been caused by a “bullet passing through,” said police.
Utilizing the gun’s serial number, police said that the gun came back to Steven Grant Bowman, 53, of the 1900 block of Sheridan St., in Williamsport. Bowman, the hotel staff said, was staying at the hotel in a room on the fourth floor. Bowman is listed as a Pennsylvania State Constable.
Police said in the complaint that they’d seen Bowman upon initially entering the hotel, as he was “swaying and showed other signs of an intoxicated person.” One office said he’d seen Bowman on the third floor, so according to the complaint, police went to that level as the scene was being investigated. Police said there they found Bowman in his state constable uniform shirt, but no shoes.
“He was swaying around, appeared confused, and had slurred speech,” said police in the criminal complaint.
When asked if he knew anything about the discharged weapon, Bowman said that he “knew nothing about the incident,” police said. Police asked him if he carried a Glock 22 and where his duty weapon was, and he told police that his duty weapon was at home, said the complaint.
Police told Bowman that they’d found and traced his weapon, at which time he “mumbled that he slipped, fell, and it went off while he was taking it off,” said police via a criminal complaint. Bowman was taken into custody at that time.
As the investigation continued, police said they found a hotel key card on the second floor, which opened the door to Bowman’s room. Additionally, hotel security footage showed Bowman on the second floor discharging his firearm, said police.
Bowman was charged with one felony count of discharge of a firearm into an occupied structure, as well as misdemeanor counts of recklessly endangering another person and criminal mischief of damaging property, in addition to public drunkenness and misconduct summary offenses.
Bowman was released on a signature bond and is scheduled for a preliminary hearing on Jan. 29 at 9 a.m. before Magisterial District Judge Todd Stephens.
All suspects and defendants are innocent until proven guilty. This story was compiled using public court records.
