4-Year-Old Boy Shoots Mom, Say Wash. Cops

GIG HARBOR, Wash. (CBS/KIRO) Police in Washington State say a 4-year-old boy shot his mother with a shotgun Monday afternoon.

Police and medical personnel were called to a house in Gig Harbor, north of Tacoma, after a report that the woman's 4-year-old son shot her.

Kitsap County Sheriff's Deputy Scott Wilson said the boy loaded a cartridge into a 12-gauge semi-automatic shotgun and pulled the trigger. The woman sustained injuries from birdshot on her left side, reports CBS affiliate KIRO.

The woman's boyfriend was not home at the time of the shooting, but arrived soon afterward.

He told police that he gave the boy a cartridge earlier Monday so the boy could handle it. The boy was curious about firearms, according to the boyfriend.

Police said the shooting happened in a bedroom, and that the mother had her back turned to her son.

She did not hear him load the cartridge into the weapon, because she was on the telephone. According to police, the woman did not even know that her son had gained access to the shotgun.

The boy's 2-year-old sister was at home at the time of the shooting.

The mother is at Tacoma General hospital, reports KIRO, and is expected to be released Monday night.

The Kitsap County Sheriff's Office is investigating the shooting as an accidental discharge of a shotgun.