OCPD Investigates 2nd Accidental Shooting Involving Children In 2 Weeks

Oklahoma City police are investigating another accidental shooting involving children, in less than two weeks.

“These things can turn very tragic very quickly,” said Msgt. Gary Knight with the Oklahoma City Police Department.  

The latest shooting happened Friday morning around 7 a.m. inside a home off North Council Road and Northwest Expressway.

“Investigators were called out to the scene,” Knight said. “For whatever reason, it looks like a gun was left out, the four-year-old found it.”

Police say the four-year-old pulled the trigger, hitting his five-year-old brother in the leg.

“Thankfully it appears he’s going to be okay,” said Knight. “He was taken immediately to a hospital, treated and stabilized.”

This shooting follows a similar incident from July 1 in Northeast Oklahoma City, where police say a four-year-old was shot and critically injured by another child.

“It’s never a good idea to leave a firearm loaded or otherwise lying around where a child can get to it because we end up with incidents just like this one,” Knight said. “Children are very inquisitive.”

In fact, police say these types of shootings are preventable by keeping loaded guns locked away from children, and gun experts say it takes just seconds to do that.

“It doesn't take that much work to make sure that your firearm is safe in your home,” said Mike Rust, General Manager of H&H Shooting Sports.

Rust said it could be as easy as using a cable lock, which is essentially a padlock for your gun.

“It's just as simple as sliding the lock up locking it taking the key,” he said as he demonstrated securing the lock. “Very safe, extremely inexpensive.”

Rust says if you want to spend a little extra money and be able to get to your gun fast, you could go with a gun safe that you can open with a combination lock or thumbprint. There is also a WIFI option for added security.

“If a child tries to put in a code thinking they're going to get in, it will actually notify the parent,” said Rust.

If you have multiple firearms, you can lock them in a larger safe, the main thing is to get them up and away from curious little hands.

“Please make sure kids not only are taught about guns understand guns, and what to do if they find one, but don’t leave them where a child can just simply find it and play with it,” Knight said.

The simple rules for children when finding a gun, according to Rust, are to stop, don’t touch, and tell an adult. H&H Shooting Sports also offers gun safety classes for adults and children. CLICK HERE for more information about the classes and gun safety.

Joe Dorman, the CEO of the Oklahoma Institute for Child Advocacy (OICA), released the following statement on Saturday:

First, we are incredibly grateful the injuries in this instance were not life-threatening. Sadly, however, we continue to see stories like this, where one child accidentally shoots another. Far too often are the results not as positive.

The real tragedy is that these are wholly preventable incidents. A gun lock would have prevented a child from discharging a weapon they find.

A few years ago, the Oklahoma Institute for Child Advocacy sought and received a grant from the National Shooting Sports Federation to provide free gun locks. We still have a supply and are happy to share these gun locks with Oklahoma families who want to safeguard their firearms.

We will continue to advocate the use of gun locks when children are in the home so that tragedies like this can be avoided.”