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Crime, Law and Justice
Todd Melby

For the third time this month, a Minnesota child finds a loaded gun and pulls trigger

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For the third time this month, a Minnesota child has found a loaded gun inside a home and discharged the weapon.

On Monday night, a 7-year-old boy found a handgun inside a home in the 7800 block of Fremont Avenue North in Brooklyn Park, Minn. The boy pointed the gun at his 9-year-old brother and fired, injuring him in the face. Police say the victim was taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

Two other recent shootings ended in tragedy.

On August 5, Markee Jones, 12, was visiting his grandmother’s house in St. Paul for a birthday party. A 14-year-old found a gun inside the house, then shot and killed Jones.

Three days later, a 3-year-old boy in Hinckley, Minn., found a 9mm handgun, pulled the trigger and killed himself. The Hinckley boy’s father, Roy Dean Pauza-Moore, was charged with three felonies: two counts of second-degree manslaughter and child endangerment by firearm.

The spate of recent shootings prompted this warning from Elliot Faust, inspector and public information officer with the Brooklyn Park Police Department:

“Gun owners need to give heavy thought to the responsibility that you have when you own guns,” he said. “You might live alone and you might not have visitors over very often. And then all the sudden, somebody shows up unexpectedly. You’re not thinking about your gun that you keep out wherever. That’s when tragedies happen.”

The Brooklyn Park Police Department offers free gun locks to residents as do other departments, Faust said.