TROY, Mich. – A 4-year-old boy shot himself in the upper abdomen Friday afternoon with his mother's gun in the parking lot of a grocery store in Troy, police said.
Capt. Bob Redmond said the boy's mother was loading up the family's car in the Kroger parking lot at Crooks Road and W. South Boulevard when the boy found the gun in the center console and fired it.
Redmond said the woman's 10-year-old son also was with them. He was not injured.
Police said the boy's mother is a licensed gun holder. The gun is a 9-mm Smith & Wesson semi-automatic handgun. Police said the trigger lock was not in place. The gun was loaded with 16 rounds.
The boy shot himself once in the upper abdomen. The bullet exited through his right thigh. His mother is with him at Beaumont Hospital. The boy is in stable condition.
"To carelessly leave an unsecured firearm in the glove box of a car, while you have kids, it's a little ridiculous at this point in time," said Redmond. "Every police department, I think, in the tri-county area supplies gun locks for free so you can lock your gun up. I don't know what more you can do to teach people to be safe with guns."
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