The 3100 block of Timber Hill in Aurora. (CREDIT: Google Maps)

An Aurora man has been arrested and charged after a hunting arrow missed a fake deer target in his back yard, traveled across the street and struck his neighbor in the knee as the neighbor was painting the front of his home.

Daniel Smorczewski

Around 3:30 p.m. Wednesday (Nov. 20, 2019), the Aurora Police Department received a 911 call from a man reporting he had been shot with an arrow in the 3100 block of Timber Hill Lane.

The man told responding officers that he was outside painting and felt a sharp pain from his knee. When he looked down, he saw an arrow protruding from his leg. The man was transported to an area hospital by Aurora Fire Department paramedics with non-life threatening injuries.

(CREDIT: Google Maps)

Responding officers began conducting an investigation and interviewed the man’s neighbor across the street.

Daniel Smorczewski, 25, told officers he was in his back yard using a bow and arrow to practice shooting a fake deer target. He then told officers that one of the arrows missed the target, and he lost track of it.

Smorczewski told officers that he packed up the bow and target and put them back in his garage before officers and medics responded to the scene.

Smorczewski was arrested and charged with a Class A misdemeanor count of Reckless Conduct.

The Aurora Police Department reminds residents that arrows can be an extremely dangerous weapon and should only be used responsibly and never used in a residential area.

Charges are not proof of guilt. Smorczewski is presumed innocent and is entitled to fair trials at which it is the burden of the state to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

SOURCE: Aurora Police Department news release

Feature Photo Caption

Man practices archery skills in Midlothian, VA, by shooting an arrow with a bow at a model deer target in the woods. DEPOSITPHOTOS STOCK IMAGE.