LEWISTON — A witness told police a 15-year-old took off with a gun to “settle a beef” shortly before a woman was shot at 124 College St. on Friday night, according to a police detective.

The teenager is expected to attend a detention hearing Tuesday morning by videoconference in 8th District Court to determine whether he must remain at Long Creek Youth Development Center in South Portland or may be released into the custody of a guardian.

Police said the bullet that struck a woman in her apartment  first passed through a bedroom window frame, then through the woman, over the beds in which her two children were lying, through a sheet hanging over a closet, through two layers of sheetrock and out an exterior wall, according to a police affidavit.

Police found a 9 mm shell casing across the street from the woman’s home.

Jordan T. Bunting, 22, of 134 College St. was arrested and charged with theft by unauthorized taking, a Class B felony, punishable by up to 10 years in prison and reckless conduct with a firearm, a Class C felony, punishable by up to five years in prison. Prosecutors also charged Bunting with failure to give correct name, a misdemeanor.

Shortly after 10 p.m., a man called 911 to report that a bullet had been fired into an apartment window at 124 College St., hitting a 24-year-old woman who had been sitting in a bedroom. She was taken to Central Maine Medical Center where she was treated for an injury and released.

A witness called police to say he’d heard about the shooting and said his friend had recently left his home with a gun to “settle a beef,” according to an affidavit written by Detective Joey Brown.

The caller believed his friend, the juvenile, might be the shooter, he told police.

An officer in the area of the shooting spotted two males. As he approached them, one fled. The one who stayed was Bunting, who gave police the false name of Brandon Santos, according to the affidavit. Bunting identified the juvenile and was released.

As midnight approached, a dispatcher gave officers the location of the juvenile. Police found Bunting and the juvenile at his sister’s home and took them to the station to be interviewed.

Bunting told police he had been with the juvenile the entire evening and that he never had a gun and hadn’t seen the juvenile with one.

He said they had left the home of the juvenile’s mother earlier and walked around until they’d been approached by police. They hadn’t heard about a shooting or a gun, Bunting told police.

Police learned from the juvenile’s mother that her 9 mm handgun was missing. She said she suspected her son and Bunting had taken it when they had been at her home earlier that evening. She filed a report with Auburn police.

The juvenile told police he had shown Bunting where the key to his mother’s gun safe was, then later, after leaving here home, Bunting had shown the juvenile the gun.

He said he handled the gun and Bunting proposed selling it and splitting the money.

They took some drugs and got some snacks, the juvenile said. At one point, while walking on College Street, he said Bunting “was messing with the gun.” Then “he saw (Bunting) fire the gun and hit a house,” according to the affidavit.

The two ran and “split up,” the juvenile told police.

They agreed to meet up later at his sister’s home. He said he saw a cop and fled because he had some marijuana on him. He said he believed Bunting had gotten rid of the gun.

He told police he later learned the house that the bullet had struck was where a friend of his lived, but said the two hadn’t always been friends. He said he believed Bunting had fired the gun at the house accidentally.

The gun wasn’t recovered, police said.

Police were later told by an Androscoggin County Jail officer that Bunting had given a false name for his fingerprint cards, but signed his real name on a property intake receipt. The intake officer asked how he spelled his name, and Bunting spelled it out, before exclaiming: “oh, sh**.”

At a videoconference hearing before a judge Monday, Bunting’s bail was dropped from $25,000 to $5,000, according to court documents.

Terms of his release include no alcohol, illegal drugs or firearms, and submitting to random searches. He was ordered to have no contact with the woman, the juvenile or his mother.

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