Two young children suffered accidental gunshot wounds in unrelated incidents in Birmingham Tuesday evening.
A 6-year-old boy shot himself in the foot in his uncle’s vehicle around 6 p.m. while his uncle was driving, and a 3-year-old boy accidentally shot himself in the abdomen just before 7 p.m. at an apartment on Brussels Circle, Birmingham police spokesman Lt. Sean Edwards said.
Both boys were at Children’s of Alabama hospital Tuesday evening, Edwards said.
The 6-year-old and his uncle were at a library and the boy began playing with a handgun he found in the glove compartment, Edwards said. While his uncle drove from a library to somewhere to get something to eat, the boy got into the back seat of the vehicle. The uncle heard a loud noise and thought it was a tire blowing, but the boy had shot himself in the foot, Edwards said.
The uncle took him to the hospital, where he is recovering quickly, Edwards said.
“It was lucky for both the boy and the uncle,” Edwards said. “That round could’ve gone through the seat and hit the uncle, and that round could have gone through his heart.”
The 3-year-old boy was injured when he shot himself in the abdomen just before 7 p.m. in an apartment in the 600 block of Brussels Circle, Edwards said. The boy’s parents took him to Trinity Medical Center and he was then taken to Children’s, where he is in surgery and his condition isn’t known, Edwards said.
