Andrew Mounts

Introduction

Andrew Mounts, 22, a former Monongalia County Sheriff’s deputy in West Virginia, is charged with wanton endangerment involving a firearm after an AR-15-style rifle left unsecured in his apartment discharged and sent a bullet through the ceiling into the apartment above, injuring a juvenile. The incident occurred on 2 October 2026 at a residence on District Drive, and Mounts — who was employed as a deputy sheriff at the time — is no longer employed by the department.

According to the criminal complaint, Mounts gave deputies multiple conflicting accounts of how the rifle fired, later admitting he had been holding it when it discharged after initially blaming a dog. He posted bond of $25,000 on 26 October, and a magistrate granted a continuance in the case on 2 November.

Background Information

Mounts worked as a Monongalia County deputy sheriff at the time of the October 2026 incident; the department and the available coverage have not said when or in what circumstances his employment ended, only that he is no longer employed there.

Deputies responded to the District Drive residence on 2 October for a call of a “weapons complaint”. The rifle — a Black Rain Ordnance Spec 15 — had fired upward through the apartment’s ceiling, and the juvenile in the apartment above sustained an injury.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Charged, not convicted. Andrew Mounts faces a wanton endangerment charge involving a firearm. The account below comes from the criminal complaint and investigators; he has not been tried and is presumed innocent.

Mounts allegedly told deputies he had left a “loaded, unsecured Black Rain Ordnance Spec 15 on a dining room table with the safety disengaged”, and that “a dog belonging to a friend knocked the rifle from the table”, causing it to discharge into the ceiling.

In later interviews with deputies, Mounts admitted he had provided law enforcement with multiple false statements about the circumstances of the discharge — and that he had been holding the rifle when it fired. The complaint notes he allegedly continued to attribute the discharge to the actions of the dog.

He was charged with wanton endangerment involving a firearm. Mounts posted bond set at $25,000 on 26 October.

Public Reaction and Consequences

At a hearing on Monday, 2 November 2026, Monongalia County Magistrate Court Judge Deanna Lindsay granted a continuance requested by Morgantown attorney Jared T. Moore, Mounts’s counsel. A date for the next hearing had not been announced in the available coverage.

The case drew attention locally because the injured person was a juvenile in a neighbouring apartment, and because the accused was a sitting deputy sheriff when the weapon — an AR-15-style rifle left loaded, unsecured and with the safety disengaged on his dining room table, according to the complaint — discharged.

Current Status

Mounts is out of custody on bond, no longer employed by the Monongalia County Sheriff’s Office, and awaiting the rescheduled hearing in Monongalia County Magistrate Court on the wanton endangerment charge.

Impact on Their Career/Life

Whatever the outcome of the criminal case, Mounts’s law enforcement employment has ended over an off-duty weapons incident that injured a child and that the criminal complaint says he described falsely to fellow officers — including an admission that he was holding the rifle when it fired. A wanton endangerment conviction in West Virginia carries one to five years in prison.

Sources

• “Continuance granted for former Mon County Deputy charged for off-duty incident” — WAJR — source