Girlfriend shot in the face; Erie man charged after apartment incident

A 20-year-old woman was in stable condition Thursday at UPMC Hamot after Erie police said she was shot in the face by her boyfriend at an apartment building on East 22nd Street Wednesday evening.

Investigators say the friend now faces aggravated assault and other charges in the incident, which the victim said was an accident.

The shooting was reported around 7:50 p.m. Wednesday when city police officers were dispatched to the 700 block of East 22nd Street to investigate a report of a gunshot victim. Officers found the woman with a gunshot wound to the face in a second-floor bedroom, police reported.

Investigators said the woman's boyfriend, 25-year-old Nicholas T. Chastang, identified his .22-caliber Kel-Tek pistol as the weapon used. When investigators interviewed Chastang, he said he pointed the gun at the woman and pulled the trigger. He also told investigators that this was a common occurrence in their daily activities, as he and the woman both pointed unloaded firearms at each other and pulled the trigger, investigators wrote in the criminal complaint filed against Chastang on Thursday.