A 4-year-old Arizona boy was shot in the head by a handgun allegedly passed between the boy’s father and the father’s 15-year-old brother, both of whom were distracted by their cell phones as the handgun went off, police said.
The incident, which occurred Wednesday in Phoenix, led police to arrest and charge the boy’s 21-year-old father, Jose Solis, with reckless endangerment.
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The unnamed child’s condition had not been publicly updated as of Friday, Phoenix police spokesman Ann Justus tells PEOPLE.
According to a police report, Solis dialed 911 around 4:40 p.m. with his injured son in the car on the way to Valleywise Medical Center.
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Solis was showing his brother the handgun that he recently had bought, and the father’s girlfriend saw both brothers “holding the gun,” according to the police report.
But after the girlfriend left the room, according to the report, she heard a gunshot, and returned to see the child “bleeding from the head.”
“While the juvenile was mishandling the firearm, the firearm discharged,” police said in a statement.
“Jose admitted he was paying attention to his cell phone when he heard (his brother) accidentally fire the weapon in the living room,” according to police. The younger brother “did not remember manipulating the slide of the handgun and or chambering a round as he, too, was playing with his cell phone.”
Solis was released on his own recognizance, reports AzFamily.com. He is due back in court May 15.
