The mother has been charged with child endangerment after a 2-year-old boy fired a gun inside a Walmart store in Ohio.
Police said a mother and son were walking outside a store in Waverly, about 90 miles south of Columbus, on Thursday morning when shots rang out.
When police arrived at the scene, the woman was waiting with her son. The girl said the boy pulled a handgun out of her bag and fired it into the ceiling, the Waverly Police Department said in a Facebook post.
“The bullet penetrated the ceiling, and contact with the magazine caused a slight injury to the child’s forehead,” police said in a statement.
Police said the mother was arrested and charged with child endangerment, but the boy was released “in parental care.” The woman’s name has not been released.
According to the non-profit media The Trace, from May 2022 to April 2023, there were 162 incidents in which children under 13 picked up guns and fired, resulting in 71 deaths and 96 injuries. did.
The most famous of those incidents occurred in Newport News, Virginia, when a 6-year-old boy shot and injured a first-grade teacher in a classroom. His mother was charged with state and federal crimes.
“Incidents like this highlight the need for increased awareness and safety measures to prevent accidents like this from occurring,” Waverly Police said on Facebook.
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