Dunmore man accused of firing gun into neighbors’ apartment

A Dunmore man fired a gun into an apartment above his, endangering the two people who lived there, police say.

Michael Patrick Sheridan, 43, of 1171 Jefferson Ave., is charged with discharging a firearm into an occupied structure and recklessly endangering others.

According to the criminal complaint, at about 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Dunmore officers were called to the apartment building for the report of shots fired.

Once there, officers spoke with Lia Schwenk and Julia Moran, who said a bullet had been fired into their apartment from the unit below.

Officers tracked the bullet, which entered through the floor of the apartment and then hit the ceiling, leaving a large hole.

Police went downstairs to speak with Sheridan, who denied having a gun or hearing gunfire.

When confronted a second time with evidence that a gun had been fired from his residence into the upstairs apartment, Sheridan admitted he had lied and said he had fired the weapon accidentally.

Sheridan told officers he had dropped the gun and it had fired.

Rosemarie Fitch, Sheridan’s fiancée, told officers he had called her in a panic and said he had accidently fired his gun.

After obtaining a search warrant, Dunmore Detective Eugene Mentz found a Springfield Arms .45-caliber semiautomatic pistol inside a range bag in Sheridan’s apartment.

The bag also contained magazines, hollow-point ammunition and a cleaning kit.

Police found that Sheridan had used epoxy to patch the hole in the ceiling before they arrived.

He said he had been attempting to clean the weapon when it fired. He told officers he racked the slide and assumed it was clear without checking the magazine. When he pushed the hammer forward while pointing the gun at the ceiling, it fired.

Sheridan said he had checked the upstairs apartment to ensure no one was hit. He admitted to initially lying about the gun because he didn’t want to go to jail.

.He remains at Lackawanna County Prison in lieu of $5,000 bail.

A preliminary hearing is scheduled for 10 a.m. on May 12 before District Judge Christopher J. Szewczyk.