Pellet gun injury forces 12-year-old into surgery
A 12-year-old underwent emergency surgery after he was accidentally shot in the stomach by his friend with a pellet gun New Year’s Eve.
The victim, identified as a 12-year-old resident of the Bybee Branch area, was sent to Vanderbilt for surgery after the pellet reportedly pierced his skin and then penetrated his stomach lining. Police say he is now recovering from the wound. His friend, age 14, will likely not be charged with any crime as the victim’s parents, as well as police, are satisfied the shooting was an accident.
“The way we understand it, they were in the yard outside the 14-year-old’s house and he was pumping up the pellet gun when it discharged and struck his friend in the stomach,” said investigating officer Lisa Norris. “It appears the pellet went through his clothes and skin and penetrated an internal organ.”
Norris said while the child should recover from his wound, pellet and BB gun wounds can be serious, even deadly.
“There have been people who died from pellet gun wounds,” Norris said, noting the “putting your eye out” warning is only one of several things that can happen when a person is shot at close range with any type of air rifle or pistol. “In the old days the pellets would fire and basically drop out of the air after 10 feet. The ones today can penetrate the skin and organs,” she said.
Norris said she worked a similar incident at a local retail store a few years ago when one person loaded a pellet gun and then shot his friend with it inside the store.
The adult who was shot ended up having to have emergency surgery because the round penetrated an internal organ, just as happened to the child last week.
“It shows it can and does happen,” Norris said, noting children should use air rifles only under direct adult supervision.