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CENTERVILLE — A 9-year-old boy was hospitalized Saturday evening after an accidental shooting at a family member’s home, police said.
Police received the call shortly after 6:30 p.m. that a child had been shot near the vicinity of 1200 North and 225 West, according to Centerville Assistant Police Chief Von Steenblik. Police and medical personnel arrived at the scene and treated the boy before transporting him to Primary Children’s Hospital with a single gunshot wound to the shoulder.
The incident appeared to be accidental, Steenblik said. The boy was playing with his cousins in the basement of a home when they found the firearm. Preliminary information indicates the 9-year-old was the one who found the gun and the other children may have been trying to take it away from him.
The boy, whose parents are both deceased, lives with his grandmother but was being watched by other family members in their home at the time the gun went off, Steenblick said.
As of late Saturday evening, detectives were at the scene interviewing family members, Steenblick said. Investigators are still trying to determine how and why the children were able to get ahold of a loaded gun.
