Woman charged with child endangerment after boy shoots self in hand
MINNEAPOLIS (KMSP) - A 34-year-old woman has been charged with child endangerment after a four-year-old boy found a gun in her purse and shot himself in the hand, according to the Hennepin County Attorney's Office.
According to the criminal complaint, Tiara Marie Wilburn is the girlfriend of the boy's father. Minneapolis police responded to a hospital Thursday after receiving a report of a four-year-old boy shooting himself with a gun. The boy suffered "significant damage" to his left hand and needed surgery.
Police learned the shooting happened in the 1400 block of Newton Avenue North. Wilburn told police she had the gun in her purse, which was on the floor of the bedroom closet. She told police the boy must have gotten into the closet while she was preparing a medicine for the boy's father. After the shooting, she tended to the boy and left the gun on the dining table.
She told investigators she did not have a gunlock or lock boxes for the gun.
After obtaining a search warrant, police found the gun on the dining table and blood on the wall of the entryway. What appeared to be a bullet hole was found in the living room ceiling.
Wilburn faces up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.