A five-year-old boy is in a critical condition after he shot himself in the face with a shotgun while playing outside alone with his 11-year-old brother. The unsupervised older brother reportedly left the shotgun unattended, and the five-year-old went to retrieve it — and then tragedy struck in Harris County, Texas.
“I was sitting on the porch, car comes flying in here,” neighbor “Mr. Fred” explained. “He said his brother shot himself.” He told KHOU that the boys were out hunting when the little boy shot himself in the chin upon retrieving the unattended weapon.
The older brother, according to Mr Fred, heard the gunshot and found his brother. Then, with parents still nowhere to be found, he put his brother in the backseat of the car, hopped in, and drove to a neighbor’s house for help.
“He knew what to do,” Mr Fred noted. “He got his brother, put him in the back seat.” He added, “That was a strong little boy. I kept telling everybody don’t get his heart beating, just keep it calm.”
“He’s a smart little kid, playful, joyful, just to see that, it was horrible,” another neighbor, identified as “Ms. Beth,” said. “It was just an accident, an accident that should have never happened,” she told KHOU.
While the parents did not seem to be anywhere nearby, neighbors came to help the little boy until medical personnel came to help. He was life flighted to Memorial Herman Hospital. He remains critical, yet stable.
Neighbors say that the children were left alone because the mother had to run to the store, and the father was at work. Police are investigating why the children had access to a gun, and a car.
Watch a report on this heartbreaking consequence of parental negligence, below:
