A 2-year-old boy was shot in the leg inside a home in Pixley, California, on Sunday after an adult inside the house was cleaning a gun when it went off. Sheriff’s deputies rushed to the residence, rendered emergency aid, and got the boy to a hospital, though his condition remained unclear as investigators continued piecing together what happened.
Deputies Responded Within Minutes
Shortly before 11:30 a.m. Sunday, Tulare County sheriff’s deputies were called to a home on the 13000 block of Avenue 112 in Pixley, according to the Los Angeles Times. The Tulare County Sheriff’s Office said the boy was accidentally shot in the leg while someone inside the house was cleaning a gun, as first reported by yourcentralvalley.com. Deputies rendered aid to the boy before medical services arrived and took him to a local hospital, the station reported.
As of the Times’ report, the boy’s condition was unclear. The investigation into the incident remains ongoing, according to the same account, and authorities have not released additional details about who was cleaning the firearm or the exact sequence that led to the discharge.
A Small Central Valley Town Awaits Answers
Pixley is a town of fewer than 4,000 residents situated between Tulare and Delano along California 99, per the Times. The Tulare County Sheriff’s Office is asking anyone with information about the shooting to call (559) 733-6218.
Sunday’s shooting fits into a pattern documented in national data on unintentional firearm injuries. The CDC counted 1,262 unintentional firearm deaths of children in the United States from 2003 through 2021, the Times reported, with children under age 5 accounting for 28% of those victims. Seven percent of the victims counted in that period were killed while a firearm was being loaded, unloaded or cleaned, the same CDC figures show.
Other Cleaning-Related Shootings Around California
The Pixley case echoes other California incidents in which children were struck by guns being cleaned by adults nearby. In 2017, a 2-year-old Apple Valley girl was placed in intensive care after her father accidentally fired a handgun he was cleaning downstairs, sending a bullet into an upstairs bedroom, according to the Los Angeles Times. More recently, a 5-year-old boy in Oakley underwent surgery after being accidentally shot in the chest by an AR-15-style rifle while his father was cleaning his guns, KCRA reported; Oakley police said the boy suffered a grazing wound rather than a penetrating one and was expected to recover.
Not every recent case in California involved a gun being cleaned. In July, a 2-year-old boy in Highland accidentally shot and killed himself after finding a loaded handgun hidden between couch cushions, according to KTLA. The boy’s mother and her boyfriend were later charged with child abuse and first-degree criminal storage of a firearm in that case, the station reported.
What California Law Says About Parents in These Cases
California’s criminal storage of firearm statute, Penal Code Section 25100, directs that when the person accused of violating the law is the parent or guardian of a child who was injured or killed in an accidental shooting, prosecutors must weigh that relationship, among other factors, in deciding how to proceed, according to California Legislative Information. It has not been established whether that statute applies to the Pixley case or whether anyone will face charges.
Broader federal data suggests the danger to the youngest children has grown even as overall accidental shooting deaths have declined. The number of people who died in unintentional shootings fell from 981 in 1997 to 549 in 2021, according to The Trace. Yet children under age 5 were among the groups with the highest rate of death from accidental shootings in 2021, the outlet reported, a reversal from 1997, when that age group had the lowest rate.
