5-year old Bronx boy finds father's gun and shoots self in the arm

A 5-year old boy found his father's loaded, unsecured gun in their Bronx apartment and shot himself in the arm with it.

Luckily the wound was not life-threatening.

The father was arrested and charged, at first making up stories about his son being shot by a stray bullet from a robbery attempt in public, and later blaming his 11-year old son for the shooting.

From an article:

The child was in serious but stable condition at Lincoln Medical Center following the 10:35 a.m. shooting inside the family’s Westchester Ave. apartment in Woodstock. 

“He’s doing okay,” said one neighbor, Dana, who would not give her last name. “He’s sitting up and playing video games at the hospital. He was shot through the fat of his shoulder.” 

Police say the child found the gun inside his father’s bedroom and shot himself while playing with it. The dad, Denny Pantoja, 33, was charged with weapons possession and child endangerment. 

Sources said Pantoja lied repeatedly to police about how his son was wounded.
He first told authorities the child was shot when he and his son were robbed at a nearby check-cashing business that morning. 

He then claimed the boy was accidentally shot in a car before claiming his 11-year-old son shot the 5-year-old while playing with the gun inside the apartment. 

Merchants near the apartment, which is inside the St. Mary’s Houses, said Pantoja was taken away in handcuffs. A pit bull and two puppies were also removed from the apartment, neighbors said.

Every gun in the hands of a child must first pass through the hands of an adult.