A two-year-old boy injured his parents and himself after firing a gun, police said. Investigators said that a single shot was fired.
The incident took place just before 8 am on Wednesday at a home on New Meadows Road in West Bath, Maine, reported WGME. The family members were taken to Mid Coast Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
Sheriff Joel Merry said that the initial investigation revealed that the boy took an unsecured handgun kept on the nightstand and fired it. While the mother was shot in the leg, the father suffered a minor injury on the back of his head. The boy also got injured in the face by the recoil of the weapon.
“How the boy was able to pick up and fire the weapon is of great concern and is being investigated,” Merry said. “This situation, while disturbing, could have had an even more tragic ending.”
Bath residents wondered why a loaded gun was kept on the nightstand at a home where children also stayed. "I know people want to stay protected and safe in their homes, but what happened here is really the opposite of that,” Bath resident Matt Ferrel said.
"A parent should know better than to leave a loaded gun anywhere that a child can get to it,” Woolwich resident Robin Buczkowski said. "For whatever reason, that did not happen in this particular case.”
A three-week-old baby was also present in the room when the shooting took place. The infant is currently being taken care of by the grandmother.
In another case, Memphis Police arrested a man for murdering a boy who was allegedly found inside his daughter’s bedroom, reported Fox13 Memphis. According to police, a boy was found shot to death in the front lawn of 1736 Edward Avenue on Thursday morning.
A woman told the police that she left her brother at that house the day before and she hadn’t heard from him since then. Investigators went to the house and questioned a woman and her daughter.
An affidavit reads that the woman told police that her fiance, John Moore, found the underaged boy in his underaged daughter’s bedroom. Soon, a fight happened. The woman informed that the boy ran down the hallway and she heard gunshots.
According to the affidavit, Moore told her that he shot the boy. The boy was later identified as the child who was in Moore’s daughter’s room. Moore has been charged with one count of second-degree murder.
“He was very smart, funny, happy, loved to eat, try different foods," James Paul Sr. said about his 16-year-old son James Paul Jr. “He loved his sisters. On his arm he had a tattoo that said I am my sisters’ keeper,” he added.
