pendentive
Member
Saw this in the local rag today:
http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/150522/
---------------------------------------------------------
SPRINGDALE — A 6-year old boy accidentally shot his grandfather in the chest Saturday night with a. 22-caliber pistol that the man let him inspect, Springdale police said.
Steve Patton, 49, of Springdale was rushed to Northwest Medical Center of Washington County just after 5 p. m. He was in surgery at the hospital Saturday evening, police said. A hospital spokesman refused to release further information on Patton’s condition later that night.
The accident happened inside Patton’s camper at the Whisler RV Park off Arkansas 265 in Springdale.
Springdale Police Department Lt. Ron Hritz said the boy and his 9-year-old sister were at the RV park Saturday to visit their grandfather.
Authorities withheld the children’s names.
The accident happened after Patton let the children handle the. 22-caliber pistol and another revolver, police said.
At some point, the boy shot his grandfather in the upper chest, Hritz said.
Patton told police who responded to the shooting that he thought the weapon was unloaded.
“It was purely accidental,” (emphasis added - mine) Hritz said. “The boy was holding the gun, looking at it, manipulating it, and it went off.”
A woman who police identified as Patton’s girlfriend ran to neighbor Patrick McKinney and asked him exactly where the RV park was so she could call the police. Hritz was not sure whether the woman was in the camper or outside when Patton was shot.
McKinney said the woman hugged and comforted the crying boy as the paramedics arrived and drove his grandfather to the hospital.
“He was in hysterics,” Mc-Kinney said.
“That little boy, he doesn’t even look to me like he’s big enough to pull a trigger,” said neighbor Harold Hylton.
Hylton said Patton is a driver for Ball Corp. ’s canning operations in Springdale. The company is headquartered in Broomfield, Colo.
Hylton watched paramedics take Patton to an ambulance.
“He was groaning pretty bad when they took him away,” Hylton said.
The children were taken to the police station and later left with two people Hritz identified as their parents. The parents refused to comment.
Neighbors describe the RV park as a quiet community that is seldom struck by violence.
Many neighbors milled about Saturday discussing what happened as police stretched yellow crime-scene tape around Patton’s camper.
Hritz said that he sees too many accidental shootings involving children.
“It seems like you hear about this on the news nationwide all the time,” Hritz said. “It’s a lot of accidental shootings that could be prevented.”
Sherrie Hutton, one of the RV park’s residents, expressed concern about youths handling guns. “I won’t even let my children touch a gun, and they are 13 and 15,” she said. Neighbor Christie Ledford said the child isn’t at fault for what happened. “The responsibility falls to the person who owns the gun in the home to prevent something like this from happening,” she said.
---------------------------------------------------------
Regarding above emphasis in red:
Accidental?
IMHO, it was entirely preventable....an act of negligence. A 6-yr-old playing with a loaded .22 is never an accident.
http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/150522/
---------------------------------------------------------
SPRINGDALE — A 6-year old boy accidentally shot his grandfather in the chest Saturday night with a. 22-caliber pistol that the man let him inspect, Springdale police said.
Steve Patton, 49, of Springdale was rushed to Northwest Medical Center of Washington County just after 5 p. m. He was in surgery at the hospital Saturday evening, police said. A hospital spokesman refused to release further information on Patton’s condition later that night.
The accident happened inside Patton’s camper at the Whisler RV Park off Arkansas 265 in Springdale.
Springdale Police Department Lt. Ron Hritz said the boy and his 9-year-old sister were at the RV park Saturday to visit their grandfather.
Authorities withheld the children’s names.
The accident happened after Patton let the children handle the. 22-caliber pistol and another revolver, police said.
At some point, the boy shot his grandfather in the upper chest, Hritz said.
Patton told police who responded to the shooting that he thought the weapon was unloaded.
“It was purely accidental,” (emphasis added - mine) Hritz said. “The boy was holding the gun, looking at it, manipulating it, and it went off.”
A woman who police identified as Patton’s girlfriend ran to neighbor Patrick McKinney and asked him exactly where the RV park was so she could call the police. Hritz was not sure whether the woman was in the camper or outside when Patton was shot.
McKinney said the woman hugged and comforted the crying boy as the paramedics arrived and drove his grandfather to the hospital.
“He was in hysterics,” Mc-Kinney said.
“That little boy, he doesn’t even look to me like he’s big enough to pull a trigger,” said neighbor Harold Hylton.
Hylton said Patton is a driver for Ball Corp. ’s canning operations in Springdale. The company is headquartered in Broomfield, Colo.
Hylton watched paramedics take Patton to an ambulance.
“He was groaning pretty bad when they took him away,” Hylton said.
The children were taken to the police station and later left with two people Hritz identified as their parents. The parents refused to comment.
Neighbors describe the RV park as a quiet community that is seldom struck by violence.
Many neighbors milled about Saturday discussing what happened as police stretched yellow crime-scene tape around Patton’s camper.
Hritz said that he sees too many accidental shootings involving children.
“It seems like you hear about this on the news nationwide all the time,” Hritz said. “It’s a lot of accidental shootings that could be prevented.”
Sherrie Hutton, one of the RV park’s residents, expressed concern about youths handling guns. “I won’t even let my children touch a gun, and they are 13 and 15,” she said. Neighbor Christie Ledford said the child isn’t at fault for what happened. “The responsibility falls to the person who owns the gun in the home to prevent something like this from happening,” she said.
---------------------------------------------------------
Regarding above emphasis in red:
Accidental?
IMHO, it was entirely preventable....an act of negligence. A 6-yr-old playing with a loaded .22 is never an accident.
