DALTON, Ga. — A Chattanooga man is in jail in Whitfield County after Dalton Police Department officers said a gun he was carrying discharged, shooting himself through a hand and injuring a friend in the scrotum and both legs.

Curtis Brandon Barnes, 32, of 809 Cicero Trail, was charged Tuesday by the Dalton Police Department with aggravated assault (gun), possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and discharging a firearm on or near a public highway or street. Barnes has a 2010 conviction for aggravated assault in Hamilton County, Tenn.

According to an incident report, Barnes originally told police he was carrying a bullet in his pocket and when he went to pull the bullet out, loose change caused the bullet to go off.

“We let them tell their story,” DPD Detective Aaron Simpson said. “I asked him if he had a hammer and a nail with his change to make it go off.”

Investigators were able to get what they said was the real story out of Barnes and Justin Davenport, who was the other victim of the bullet.

According to the report, Davenport was driving a blue Chevy Blazer west on the North Bypass toward Haig Mill Road at about 3:20 p.m. with Barnes in the passenger seat. Barnes was “handling” a Taurus 9mm pistol when it “discharged and a bullet traveled through the left hand of Barnes, through the right leg of Davenport, through the scrotum of Davenport, and came to rest inside the left leg of Davenport.”

“There was no evidence that it was an intentional act,” Simpson said. “They are apparently co-workers and friends and there was no evidence of any disturbance between them that led to this.”

The 911 call came from the call box of the Dalton Fire Department Station 3 on Haig Mill Road from a man saying he had been shot and didn’t know how. When officers arrived, they found drops of blood in the parking lot and around the call box, but no sign of a victim.

Both men later showed up at Hamilton Medical Center and a nurse told police there were two gunshot victims. Barnes originally told the responding officers he didn’t have a gun and told the story of the loose change and the bullet.

According to the report. Barnes’ wife said he called her and said he had been shot, but didn’t give any other details. Davenport’s mother told police that Davenport told her he had accidentally shot himself at the Wal-Mart on Shugart Road.

The report said after the gun discharged, Davenport pulled into the fire station for help and Barnes threw the gun across the street. Detectives found it “covered in blood.”

Barnes was being held Wednesday at the Whitfield County jail on a $5,000 bond.