SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS – A 10-year-old boy is in critical condition after being shot by another child, and San Antonio police say it was “accidental”. Officers were dispatched shortly before 10 p.m. Wednesday to an apartment complex located in the 1700 block of South Hamilton Avenue.
Upon arrival, the boy was found to be suffering from a gunshot wound to the chest. He was transported to a local hospital and is listed in critical condition.
Officers believe that he was shot by another child who was playing with a gun and fled the scene with the firearm after the shooting. At last check, neither the child nor the weapon had been located, and they are undecided on whether the child will face any charges when and if they are located. However, according to a local media outlet, “they did stress that they were handling the shooting as an accident at this time.”
Merriam-Webster defines ‘accident’ as – a sudden event that is not planned or intended and that causes damage or injury; an event that occurs by chance. So, by definition, and absent any criminal intent by the young shooter, this was an accident, albeit it a scary, tragic, and potentially deadly one.
Even scarier is the fact that a child is unaccounted for and has a firearm that is probably still loaded. Very few guns only have one round in the cylinder or magazine. The fact that two young children were unsupervised and at least one if not both were handling a loaded firearm could have happened a dozen ways, but it shouldn’t have happened at all.
Hopefully, the good men and women of the SAPD can locate the youth and the gun so that there are no more ‘accidents’ involving this particular child or firearm.
At a certain moment, the firearm changed hands to which it was not supposed to go. It may have been stolen or found, but the fact remains that an irresponsible gun owner is to blame at some point in the chain.
