After evicting his son for turning his home into a trash dump, Charles Anderson said this week he hoped to avoid seeing his offspring again.

"There's going to be a confrontation, and I don't want violence," Anderson said Monday.

He couldn't have been more prescient.

Anderson's son, 53-year-old Roger Anderson, was facing an attempted murder charge Wednesday after shooting his father about 10:30 a.m., Las Vegas police said.

Charles Anderson, 85, was only grazed by the .22-caliber round fired from about eight feet away in a home near Decatur Boulevard and Alta Drive.

Police at the scene marveled that Charles Anderson wasn't killed.

"There's no question the victim in this case was very lucky," officer Bill Cassell said.

What most would consider a harrowing brush with death was laughed off by the senior Anderson. The perpetually lighthearted World War II veteran explained the gun "was only an old Ruger Bearcat" revolver.

"More of a showpiece than anything," he said.

Anderson explained that he was too fleet-footed a target when his son aimed said showpiece at him.

"I didn't want to get shot in the face, so I turned and ran, and he got me in the back," said Anderson, who is quite spry for an octogenarian.

It also helped that his son had little time to get a bead on him, Anderson added. "He's not a very good shot."

Anderson then joked about his son's attempt to flee the shooting on a bicycle only to be cornered by speeding police cruisers a few blocks away.

Police booked the younger Anderson into the Clark County Detention Center. Cassell said Anderson would likely be charged with attempted murder, but prosecutors could amend that to assault with a deadly weapon or another felony.

The shooting came only two days after Anderson evicted his son and grandson, 30-year-old Aaron Anderson, from the Eugene Avenue home where he was allowing the relatives to stay rent-free.

Roger and Aaron Anderson had spent months scouring Las Vegas trash bins for junk they deposited in the home's front yard. They maintained that the massive mounds and shopping carts full of rotting trash and broken appliances were valuable.

Charles Anderson said he did not realize what his relatives had done to the home since he moved out in October, until seeing a news report about neighbors complaining about the mess.

With Clark County within days of forcing a cleanup, Anderson threw out his son and grandson and spent thousands of dollars to clear the property near Lake Mead and Decatur boulevards.

Wednesday's incident unfolded three miles south, at the Gipsy Avenue home where Anderson lives with his daughter and helps care for her autistic teenage son.

Roger and Aaron Anderson already had been banned from the Gipsy residence. But Charles Anderson said he found the pair inside Wednesday morning after returning home from running an errand.

"They couldn't have been there long, but they were already making a mess," said Anderson, who believes his son and grandson have a mental disorder that compels them to collect junk and make messes. "Then I saw he had my pistol, my old Bearcat, in his hand."

Anderson said his son referenced the cleanup of the Eugene Avenue home just before firing at him.

"He was screaming, 'Why'd you take my stuff? Why'd you take my stuff?' " Anderson said.

Neighbors summoned police after hearing the shot, Cassell said. Authorities tried to get Anderson medical attention for his bullet wound.

"They wanted to take me to the hospital, but it wasn't that bad," Anderson said, as he pulled down his shirt collar to expose the bandage he put over the wound. "I had more serious injuries in the Navy."

Once police had Roger Anderson detained, they questioned Aaron Anderson as a witness, but he was not arrested.

In an interview at the elementary school where police caught his father, Aaron Anderson said he and his dad spent the nights since their eviction sleeping on the streets.

He repeatedly twitched and appeared confused while providing rambling answers to questions.

"We went there (the Gipsy home) hoping to stay," he said. "I don't know what Grandpa's problem is."

Aaron Anderson said he eventually hoped to catch a bus to Alamo, about 90 miles north of Las Vegas, to stay at another grandfather's home. He first needed to retrieve an $80 unemployment check due in Thursday's mail. But he said he feared another confrontation with Charles Anderson if he went to the home he was evicted from to retrieve it.

A police crime scene investigator let him use her cell phone to make calls. She also gave him $40. Aaron Anderson deposited the cash in a tattered plastic sandwich bag that previously held a few coins.

"Do you think Greyhound has buses that go to Alamo?" he asked before riding away on a rusty bike.