Grasped father’s pistol from gun safe

By ED PILOLLA

Staff writer

A 2-year-old boy is recovering after accidentally shooting himself with his father’s .22-caliber pistol Friday evening inside their rural Marion home.

Sheriff Robert Craft said the child’s father opened his gun safe, turned around, and the boy grabbed the barrel of the gun, which discharged.

“The pistol was hanging on a peg on the door,” Craft said. “The gun safe was opened to allow the father access to some things. While the toddler was there, he pulled on the pistol, and it went off.”

A bullet struck the boy in the upper inner arm and chest, Craft said.

“After striking the rib the bullet fragmented with only a small portion of the fragment entering the chest, causing minor internal injury,” Craft said in a press release.

Investigators ruled the incident to be “accidental and unintentional,” Craft said, adding that the child’s parents were not facing charges.

Craft could not provide the condition of the child but said he was doing “OK” and had been released from Wesley Medical Center in Wichita. Authorities declined to identify the victim.

The child’s parents drove the boy from their home on 170th Rd. to St. Luke Hospital shortly after 8 p.m., according to radio dispatches.

Hospital staff stabilized the boy and decided to transport him to Wesley, requesting a team of two advanced emergency medical technicians to tend to him in the back of the ambulance during the ride, Marion County EMS Director Brandy McCarty said.

A Peabody ambulance with one EMT and one advanced EMT traveled to St. Luke when Marion could not provide an advanced life support crew, McCarty said. Hillsboro provided the second advanced EMT, who arrived at St. Luke in a personal vehicle, McCarty said.

St. Luke also sent a registered nurse along with the child’s parents, McCarty said.

Life Team helicopter would normally have transported the boy from St. Luke to Wesley, but Friday was too foggy for an airlift, McCarty said.

“It was an unusual situation,” McCarty said. “The weather was really bad, and they required a lot more staff than the normal call. It’s better to be overly safe (with extra staff) than need something in route and not have it.”