Man indicted after target practice bullet hits neighbor’s belly
Shooter claims 6-foot berm behind fence stopped projectiles.
Frank Famulare
COUPLAND — was standing July 24 in his hayfield in southeastern Williamson County when he felt a sting in his belly. He looked down. “I had been shot,” he said. “I thought somebody was trying to kill me.”
Famulare, 53, whose hayfield sits about 8 miles south of Taylor, said he later figured the bullet came from a neighbor who was shooting at a target about half a mile away. In August, he said he was struggling to get law enforcement authorities to investigate the incident. Last week, he finally got some news.
A Williamson County grand jury indicted his neighbor, Val Workman, for deadly conduct, a third-degree felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison. According to the indictment, Workman “knowingly” discharged a firearm at or in the direction of one or more people and in the direction of a home or building.
Williamson County Assistant District Attorney Mark Brunner declined to comment on the details of the case.
Famulare, who still is suffering from nerve damage in his stomach caused by the bullet, said the indictment was a relief.
“I feel vindicated,” he said. “This has been nagging at me for three months,” he said.
Workman, 56, was arrested and released Wednesday from the Williamson County Jail after posting bond on bail set at $10,000. He told the American-Statesman in a phone interview that his target shooting couldn’t have caused Famulare’s injury.
Workman said he was shooting at a target on his property near Pflugerville, but none of the bullets could have bounced off the 6-foot dirt berm behind the target in a way that would have hit Fam-
ulare.
On the day he was shot, Famulare said he had just stepped off his tractor after baling hay when a friend yelled about hearing gunshots whizzing by them.
Famulare said the bullet hit him a few seconds later. The friend drove him to the hospital, Famulare said, because it would have taken an ambulance too long to arrive.
On their way, they saw Workman standing by County Road 129 with a gun in his hand, Famulare said. There was a target on Workman’s fence but nothing behind it to stop the bullets, Famulare said.
Famulare, the president of a business called EMIT that installs conveyor systems, said surgeons examined his organs to make sure the bullet hadn’t pierced them, then bandaged him up.
He spent one day in the hospital but said he hasn’t been able to return to work because of pain.
The investigation of the shooting was complicated by the fact that Famulare was wounded in Williamson County, but Workman’s property is in Travis County.
Williamson County investigators referred the matter to the Travis County sheriff ’s office, which handed the case back to Williamson detectives, who had already collected the evidence, Travis sheriff ’s spokesman Roger Wade said.
Famulare said he isn’t “anti-gun,” and he owns guns he uses for hunting.
“I just hope that somebody can hear my story and be a little more cautious about gun safety,” he said.