The parents weren’t home. But their daughter, and their .22-caliber rifle, were.

Whether Zan Walker knew this as he drove through the Catching Slough area to visit his girlfriend on Feb. 6 is unknown, but District Attorney R. Paul Frasier said on Monday that Walker did have some .22-caliber shells in his backpack that day.

The 18-year-old parked outside 63016 Parkway Road, the Eberlein residence. He went into Doug and Toni Eberlein’s bedroom, where he found the rifle. Walker loaded it and walked down the hall toward Chloe Eberlein, their daughter. He said he was unloading the gun, but when he came to the entrance of her room, it wasn’t unloaded.

“The gun’s pointed at her and somehow it went off and hit her in the chest,” Frasier said.

Eberlein was rushed to Bay Area Hospital. She would be fine, but Walker would be indicted on a charge of third-degree assault.

Last week, Walker pleaded guilty to a charge of fourth-degree assault. On Monday, Judge Richard Barron sentenced him to 60 days in jail and two years supervised probation. He also ordered Walker to pay Eberlein’s medical bills and court fees, totaling about $40,000, and told him he must stay away from the Eberlein family and their residence.

Frasier said he did not pursue the third-degree assault charge because it would have required proving Eberlein experienced a life-threatening injury. Although the bullet hit her chest, it was not as serious as it otherwise might have been.

“She’s just a very, very lucky girl,” Frasier said.

She also wasn’t interested in the prosecution of Walker.

“She did not want this pursued at all,” said Frasier. “Obviously, the parents thought otherwise.”

Walker began serving his sentence Monday at Coos County jail.