MONTOURSVILLE- A 2-year-old boy is in the hospital after shooting himself with an unattended handgun.
It happened Thursday afternoon at a home in Lycoming County. Little 2-year-old Zachary was watching TV while his mother Mandi Fry, and her fiancé, Cody Asher were upstairs showering. According to police, the child found a loaded .45 caliber handgun left out in plain sight.
The child shot himself in the leg, and the bullet went through his leg and lodged in his back.
A neighbor told WNEP, “Cop came in pulled out a little kid. His pants were down. You couldn’t tell what was wrong at all, I didn’t see blood at all. Knew something was wrong because the kid was completely limp.”
The Montoursville police chief calls the situation “the poster incident of what not to do.”
“It was a tragedy. It was terrible. It was a hard lesson to be learned of what not to do. How you should handle a handgun and firearms in your house when you have small children,” said Montoursville Police Chief Jeffrey Gyurina.
A Facebook photo from last June shows a boy identified as Zackary with his mother, Mandi Fry, and her fiancé, Cody Asher. Fry is pregnant and the caption reads: “Watch out boys you better run. It’s a girl and Dad’s got guns!”
Police believe the couple’s other child, an infant girl, was in a crib when the shooting happened.
Zackary is at Geisinger Medical Center and has already had one surgery and is expected to have a second, according to police.
Children and Youth are investigating the case, but say the couple still has custody of their infant daughter.
Chief Gyurina says charges against the couple are pending.
