DETROIT – A teenager has been charged as a juvenile after his 2-year-old brother got ahold of his unattended firearm and shot himself with it in their Detroit home.
The Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office announced Friday that a 16-year-old boy is facing one charge of careless discharge of a firearm causing injury in connection with the non fatal shooting of his 2-year-old brother.
Detroit police say that at about 2:50 a.m. Thursday, the 2-year-old boy shot himself in a home on Alameda Street, in the area of 8 Mile and John R roads. The child reportedly suffered graze gunshot wounds to the head and the left arm. He was taken to the hospital and said to be in stable condition.
It is believed that the toddler shares a bedroom with his 16-year-old brother. Police say the teenage boy left a loaded gun on the bed in that bedroom and went to the living room to sleep on the couch. The 2-year-old then reportedly found the gun and started playing with it, shooting himself.
Officials say the family found the child bleeding with the gun next to him. The child’s mother, father and brother were in the home at the time of the incident, police said.
The 16-year-old boy is said to have grabbed the gun after the shooting, apologized to his father and then fled on foot with the weapon. Police located the teen sometime Thursday and took him into custody.
The teen was officially charged on Friday, April 22, and is set to attend a preliminary hearing at 1 p.m. His identity will not be released because he is a minor.
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