An American toddler shot his father and his pregnant mother with a single bullet after reaching into her purse for an iPod, but instead pulling out a handgun.
Seconds after grabbing the 9mm pistol, the 3-year-old boy unwittingly fired one shot, which hit his father in the buttock, passed out of his hip and then struck his mother in the shoulder.
Justin Reynolds and Monique Villescas were taken to hospital in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Both are expected to survive, but Villescas, who is eight months pregnant, was described as "seriously" injured. The shooting was the latest in which a young child fired a relation's unsecured weapon, either accidentally or while playing.
In Missouri last month, a 5-year-old shot dead his 9-month-old brother after finding his grandfather's loaded pistol in the family home, and in Idaho last December, a mother shopping at a Walmart store died after her 2-year-old son reached into her purse and accidentally fired her handgun.
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Advertise with NZME.An average of two children a week are shot dead in accidents in the US and in three quarters of the cases, the gun was fired by another child.
New Mexico has some of the laxest firearms laws in the US, but Reynolds and Villescas are expected to face criminal negligence charges.
Their son and his 2-year-old sister, who were staying with their parents in a motel room when the shooting occurred, were taken into temporary care by the state's social services while an investigation was conducted.
"All of a sudden we heard a gun go off," Reynolds told KOB4 television news channel.
"The next minute I realised my girlfriend was bleeding. Then I sat down and realised I was shot too."
