A 2-year-old boy accidentally shot himself in the face Thursday night at a home in suburban Phoenix, authorities said, adding that the child is currently in critical but stable condition.
Peoria, Arizona, police spokesman Jay Davies told KPHO-TV that detectives do not suspect foul play in the shooting that happened inside a home across from Peoria High School.
The weapon belonged to the boy's father and was located under either a pillow or blanket. Peoria detectives said they believe the boy was playing on the bed when he found the gun.
The child's grandmother told KPHO-TV that she did not know about the boy handling the weapon until it was fired.
"She was unsure of at what point did the
child get the gun," Davies told KSAZ-TV. "She wasn't aware that he had it . . . in the process of playing around on the bed, the gun went off."
Authorities said the boy was taken to an undisclosed hospital where he was recovering and they were unsure at the moment if charges would be filed.
Davies told KPHO-TV that the incident is an example of why people should take care in storing firearms.
"You've got to keep this gun with a gun lock and a gun safe and keep it out of the hands of children," he said. "Unfortunately these are the types of things that happen when these precautions are not in place."
The Washington Post reported last year that statistics involving children and accidental shootings are unclear. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Justice Department both told the newspaper that there is no nationwide data regarding the age of the person who pulls the trigger in an unintentional shooting.
"We know how many times children die each year as a result of gun deaths," Jon S. Vernick, co-director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research, told The Post last year. "We don't know how many times children pull the trigger and someone dies."
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