Tracy DeCarr charged after 3 y.o. shot himself in the stomach

[Jaded]

http://i28.tinypic.com/5makib.jpg

DELTONA, Fla. -- It is nothing short of a miracle that a 3-year-old Deltona boy survived after he picked up his mother's gun and started playing with it before shooting himself in the stomach.

The incident happened inside the house on Concert Road. The boy had to go into his mother's room, dig around in her nightstand, get the gun out and take it to his own bedroom. His mother said she didn't have any idea what was happening until the gun went off.

"I freaked out. I freaked out. I cried. I grabbed him and threw him up against me to stop the bleeding and just flew to the hospital," said mother Tracy Decarr.

It was a call from hospital officials that led sheriff's investigators to converge on the small Deltona home Tuesday morning. Inside, they found a .40-caliber handgun that 3-year-old Brandon Cardona shot himself with.

The gun was kept inside the house for protection, Decarr told Eywitness News. She said her son must have thought it was a toy.

"He's a little boy and he loves playing with guns and trucks and everything," Decarr said.

She said she's still not sure why the gun fired; he either tried to load it himself or there was a bullet in the chamber already and it barely missed killing him.

"He shot himself in the stomach right here and it went right back out of his skin right here," Decarr said pointing to her stomach. "He had the two holes and blood coming down and he had stuff all over him.

"The boy and the family were not home Tuesday afternoon. He was taken to Arnold Palmer Children's Hospital in Orlando, but is expected to be okay. His mother, however, is expected to be charged with a felony for leaving the gun unsecured and for child neglect.

http://www.wftv.com/news/16559080/detail.html

"He's a little boy and he loves playing with guns and trucks and everything," Decarr said.

All the more reason to keep the gun out of reach, don't ya think??

[Dakota Valkyrie]

It is my "who cares" opinion that it is much more likely that a kid will play with your gun than the gun will be used to ward off a bad guy.

In my case, it is much more likely that the bad guy will take the gun and threaten me with it. I keep a knife. I can out run a knife faster than I can a bullet.

[Jaded]

Daddy is facing charges too...but not just for child neglect.

http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/breakingnews/shoot061208.htm

From article:

DELAND -- A man who claimed to be the uncle of a Deltona toddler who shot himself with a handgun faces a slew of charges after deputies discovered that he was actually the child's father, a sheriff spokesman said this afternoon.


Robert Cardona, who told deputies investigating the shooting that he was 3-year-old Brandon Cardona's uncle, admitted in a court hearing on Wednesday that he was the child's father, said Volusia County Sheriff's Office spokesman Brandon Haught. Cardona, 24, told a judge at a Department of Children and Families hearing he lied to deputies about his identity, Haught said.


The father faces charges of child neglect, leaving firearms within access of a minor, forgery, giving false official statements, giving a false report to law enforcement officers and resisting arrest without violence, Haught said.


The forgery charge stems from Cardona signing his brother's name on a witness statement given to investigators, Haught said.


Cardona was arrested Wednesday in the courthouse on a Flagler County on warrant for probation violation for driving with a suspended license, which is unrelated to the shooting, Haught said.

Decarr said she kept the gun unloaded in a holster in a dresser, but the child told sheriff’s investigators he took the gun off a table in his mother’s room.