Four-year-old girl playing with a gun accidentally shoots herself and her sleeping mother in the head

  • Shooting took pace Sunday morning in Indianapolis in a home housing a half-dozen children
  • Father of the four-year-old told police girl grabbed handgun from nightstand and shot herself in the cheek and her mother in the head
  • Toddler was hospitalized in stable condition, while her wounded mother underwent surgery Sunday   

By Snejana Farberov For Dailymail.com

Published: 14:57 EST, 14 November 2016 | Updated: 17:16 EST, 14 November 2016

A four-year-old girl from Indianapolis accidentally shot herself and her mother in the head with a gun she found at home Sunday morning, according to police.

The incident took place in the 1600 block of East 44th Street on the north side of the city at around 8.30am Sunday.

Police say the toddler's father told them he and his fiancee were asleep when he was awakened by the sound of a gunshot.

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Police in Indianapolis say a 4-year-old girl grabbed a gun from the nightstand in this home on the north side and shot herself in the cheek and her mother in the back of the head

The man stated that his 4-year-old daughter shot herself in the cheek with the gun she had found in the nightstand, reported the station WISH-TV

The same bullet that wounded the girl struck her mother in the back of the head as she slept.

The couple's two-year-old son was also in the bedroom at the time but he was not harmed. Other children inside the home were not injured in the shooting.

The wounded 4-year-old was taken to Riley Hospital for Children at Indiana University Health, where she was listed in stable condition Monday.

Her mother underwent surgery on Sunday afternoon at IU Health Methodist Hospital and was expected to recover. She was described as being alert and conscious as she was being taken away from the scene of the shooting.

The house in the 1600 block of East 44th Street was filled with children, but no one else was injured in the Sunday morning shooting 

Detectives found a handgun in the family’s home and were investigating the events leading up to the shooting.

The father could face a charge of reckless endangerment for leaving an unsecured gun within reach of a half-dozen children, reported Fox 59.

 

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