Boy critically injured in Utah accidental shooting

Carter Williams, KSL.com

LEHI, Utah (KSL.com) — A boy was taken to a hospital in “extremely critical condition” after apparently accidentally shooting himself in the head Monday evening, police said.

Lehi police responded to the report of a shooting inside a car parked outside of the Maverik convenience store located at 3569 N. Thanksgiving Way shortly before 7:40 p.m., according to Lehi police spokeswoman Jeanteil Livingston.

She said a child had accidentally shot himself in the head. An on-duty officer arrived and performed lifesaving measures with help from bystanders before the child was taken to a nearby hospital and then flown to another hospital along the Wasatch Front.

The incident remains under investigation, and no other details were released. Lehi Police Sgt. Jeff Smith said officers were still collecting evidence and piecing together what happened. Barriers were placed between the convenience store and the front stalls, where the vehicle was parked.

Doug Shields, who was at the store at the time of the incident, said he saw the boy’s mother frantically yelling for help and a young boy covered in blood. While others rushed to help the child, he and another man helped the mother, who briefly passed out before she described what happened.

“She goes, ‘He shot himself. He shot himself. He shot himself. … He found the gun under my seat and pulled the trigger.’ It was apparently an accident. A total accident,” Shields said, adding that the mother said the boy was 8 years old, he added.

Smith said the incident serves as a sad reminder about the importance of gun safety and making sure children don’t have easy access to a weapon.

It comes a little over a week after a 5-year-old Santaquin boy died from what was determined to be an accidental self-inflicted gunshot wound. A Magna woman was also charged last week after prosecutors said her 3-year-old son had easy access to a gun and accidentally shot himself in the foot on Aug. 2.

“It’s super tragic,” Smith said. “We hate responding to these types of things.”

Contributing: Andrew Adams