| Flickr/Anupam Kamal |
A tragic accident involving a four-year-old shooting his three-year-old brother occurred Sunday. Fortunately, the younger brother is OK, but because the father was in another room allegedly smoking marijuana, the St. Louis County police and local media decided to make that the focus of the story.
The shooting happened around noon on Sunday. A loaded gun was hidden inside a closet, and the child was able to reach it. He and his brother played with the gun and it went off, a bullet striking the younger brother in the left shoulder. The child was treated at a local hospital for soft-tissue injury and released.
As the kids were playing with the gun, their father, Larry Madison, 27, was in the next room. Police issued a statement that claims Madison was smoking some weed while his wife was taking a nap. He was arrested for felony child endangerment and misdemeanor possession of marijuana.
Predictably, local media covering the case displayed some reefer madness and not-so-subtly suggested that marijuana was the reason for the shooting.
KMOV (Channel 4)’s headline reads, “Police: Father was smoking pot when boy shot brother in St. Louis County.” And in their newscast, the reporter says, “Police say a father left a loaded shotgun where his small children could access it while he smokes marijuana. The result? A four-year-old accidentally shoots his three-year-old brother.”
Read the entire story over at the Riverfront Times.