Police chief's wife upgraded to fair condition after gunshot

ATLANTA (AP) The wife of a Georgia police chief who told a 911 dispatcher that he accidentally shot her was improving at a hospital Monday, according to officials who hope she can be interviewed soon. <br /> <br /> Margaret McCollom's condition has been upgraded from critical to fair, Atlanta Medical Center spokeswoman Nicole Gustin said. <br /> <br /> Authorities hope to interview her Monday or Tuesday, Georgia Bureau of Investigation Agent Sherry Lang said. <br /> <br /> Peachtree City Police Chief William McCollom called for help at 4:17 a.m. New Year's Day, telling the dispatcher he shot his sleeping wife in their bed. Authorities said the shot was fired from the chief's 9-mm Glock handgun his service weapon. <br /> <br /> Peachtree City officials placed McCollom on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation. He hadn't been charged as of late Monday morning, Lang said. <br /> <br /> In the 911 call, William McCollom said he and his wife were both asleep when the shooting happened. He also said he was moving the gun before it fired. <br /> <br /> ``The gun was in the bed, I went to move it, and I put it to a side and it went off,'' McCollom said in a recording of the emergency call. <br /> <br /> Near the end of the call, the dispatcher asked the chief whether he was also sleeping when it happened. He responded that he was. <br /> <br /> Griffin Judicial Circuit District Attorney Scott Ballard said the 911 recording is just one piece of evidence and that investigators are digging deeper to try and determine how the shooting occurred. <br /> <br /> Before being hired in Peachtree City in 2012, McCollom worked for more than two decades in the Delray Beach, Florida, Police Department. He then became police chief in Tequesta, Florida. <br /> <br /> William and Margaret McCollom divorced in 1999 before getting back together, court records show.