10-year-old boy with special needs seriously hurt after accidental shooting, sheriff’s office says

NEW CARLISLE, Clark County — A 10-year-old boy with special needs is in the hospital after he accidentally shot himself Saturday evening, Clark County Sheriff’s Office Detective Lieutenant Kristopher Shultz.

Just before 6 p.m., Clark County Sheriff’s deputies and medics were dispatched to the 800 block of Bayberry Drive in New Carlisle on reports of a shooting.

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Shultz told News Center 7 that a 10-year-old boy got into a locked car and found a gun that was properly secured away.

Neighbors told News Center 7′s Malik Patterson that they are heartbroken over what happened.

“Very hard to fathom. Especially a child. You know, innocence,” neighbor Tina Kraft said.

Kraft has lived on Bayberry Drive for 45 years, and she said she has never seen anything like this.

“I was then fixing dinner and my husband said, ‘Did you hear that? That sounded like a gunshot,’ and I said what?” Kraft said.

Shultz said the boy came to the residence on Bayberry Drive to visit a relative with at least one of his parents.

He said no one saw the child grab the keys to a car parked outside.

The boy then walked outside, unlocked the car door, and found a gun that was secured in a holster.

Schultz said the child drew the gun from the holster and accidentally shot himself in the torso.

“(My) heart is just broken, it’s broken,” Kraft said.

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Kraft said she watched as the boy’s family rushed to save him.

“He was running in the house and he was on the phone and kept coming out. Then another gentleman, I guess, was his uncle was trying to hold the boy down,” she said.

Each passing moment was painful for Kraft to watch.

“It devastates me to even think of the child being hurt,” Kraft said.

She said everyone on Bayberry Drive will be thinking of the boy and his family tonight and are willing to help them in any way they can.

“There’ll be praying for the little boy that you know we don’t go up and stick our nose in people’s business, we just check in. ‘Is everything okay? Do you need anything?’” Kraft said

Shultz said the child sustained serious injuries and had to be rushed into surgery, but he is expected to live thanks to the quick response from the people inside the house.

At this time, Shultz told News Center 7 the sheriff’s office believes this incident to be a “fluke tragedy,” and will not be pressing any charges.

We will continue to follow this story.

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