Toddler shoots both parents with mother’s handgun

NEW YORK — A toddler in New Mexico shot his father and pregnant mother with a single bullet after reaching into her purse for an iPod, but instead pulling out a handgun.

Seconds after grabbing the 9-mm pistol, the three-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.

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 fiveyear-old shot dead his ninemonth-old brother after finding his grandfather’s loaded pistol in the family home.

In Idaho last December, a mother shopping at a Walmart store died after her two-yearold son reached into her purse and accidentally fired her handgun.

An average of two children a week are shot dead in accidents in the United States 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 U.S., but Reynolds and Villescas are expected to face criminal negligence charges.

Their son and his two-yearold 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 KOB 4 television.”

“The next minute I realized my girlfriend was bleeding. Then I sat down and realized I was shot too.”

A police spokesman said: “The Albuquerque Police Department can’t emphasize enough that if you choose to be a gun owner always secure and lock up your firearm out of the reach of children.”