Man charged after son, 4, shoots self in hand with unsecured handgun
WHITE BEAR LAKE, Minn. -- A 30-year-old White Bear Lake man has been charged after his 4-year-old son accidentally shot himself with an unsecured handgun last month.
The complaint says that, on the evening of Nov. 3, police responded to a house on Riviera Drive North. There, they found a boy who had been shot in the hand, in the webbing between two fingers of his right hand. Medical records indicate that the bullet severed two nerves.
The boy's aunt told police that the boy had been playing in the basement alone. She said that the gun belonged to the boy's father, who had a bedroom in the basement. He was identified as Vang Her.
Her was not home at the time of the accident, but the boy's mother and grandparents were.
Her came home while police were still gathering information from other household members. He admitted to police that he had left the gun in a plastic ammunition box on the floor that day. He said normally it would've been in the back of the room by the bed but he had not gotten around to placing it there following a trip he'd just taken.
Her has been charged with endangerment of a child by firearm access, which is punishable by as much as five years in prison and a $10,000, if convicted.