4-year-old shot in face by older brother while parents weren’t home, Michigan cops say

A 4-year-old boy was accidentally shot in the face by his brother playing with an unsecured gun, Michigan cops say.

The boy was listed in “temporary serious condition” following the Thursday, Oct. 12, shooting in Detroit, said Charles Fitzgerald, the assistant police chief with the Detroit Police Department.

Fitzgerald said in a news briefing the boy’s 9-year-old brother was playing with the gun and shot his younger sibling in the face. The bullet went through the 4-year-old’s cheek and into his shoulder.

The gun was in the bedroom of the boys’ 20-year-old brother, who was on probation and not allowed to be in possession of a firearm, Fitzgerald said. Police said the 20-year-old had previously shown the 9-year-old the gun.

Only the 4-year-old, 9-year-old, their 11-year-old sister and potentially a teenager were home at the time of the shooting, police said.

“We don’t know where the parents are, have no idea,” Fitzgerald said. “They’ve made it to the hospital at this point, but where were they when these kids were in there alone? Why was the gun in the house?”

Two people were taken into custody, but police did not provide any additional details.

Fitzgerald said the 4-year-old boy’s gunshot wound can be healed. He was “alert and talking” when officers arrived at the hospital, WDIV reported.

“But you’ve got the mental scars as well that not only the older brother — when I say older, he’s just a child, he’s a little boy himself, pulling the trigger shooting his brother — and then the wounds that the brother is going to have,” the assistant police chief said.

This story was originally published October 13, 2023 at 6:33 AM with the headline "4-year-old shot in face by older brother while parents weren’t home, Michigan cops say."