A Cedar Grove woman was shot and taken to a local hospital after a pistol being handled by a toddler discharged, deputies say.
Kanawha sheriff's deputies were dispatched shortly after 1 p.m. Friday to a home on Williams Street to investigate a shooting complaint. When Deputy D. Cadle arrived, he found 53-year-old Pamela Gibson with a gunshot wound to the hip, Detective Sean Snuffer said.
Gibson was taken to Charleston Area Medical Center's General Hospital by paramedics. She underwent surgery Friday afternoon and was in stable condition, Snuffer said.
Detectives spoke to witnesses at the scene and were able to determine from those statements that a 2-year-old boy had been able to obtain a pistol.
"After obtaining the firearm, the 2 year old child accidentally discharged the weapon while near Mrs. Gibson, causing a bullet to strike her," Snuffer said in an email.
The toddler, whose name was not released by the sheriff's office, was not injured in the incident. He was released to a family member. Snuffer would not say how the child was related to the victim.
Only one shot was fired in the incident, detectives said.
"We are still looking into how the child obtained the firearm so we would encourage anyone who has a firearm and has children - or has children around - to either invest in gun locks or some type of gun safe to ensure the child is not able to gain access to the weapon," Snuffer later said. "If you lock your gun up this can be prevented."
The detective said gun locks are relatively inexpensive. Some state and local organizations give the devices away when they have them in stock.
Snuffer said its a scene deputies have encountered in the past, but not one they run into frequently.
"One time is too many," he said.
An analysis of shootings involving children conducted by The Washington Post showed that so far in 2015, at least 13 toddlers have inadvertently killed themselves with guns, 18 have injured themselves, 10 have injured other people and two have killed other people, the Post reported Wednesday. The numbers were gathered by using news reports of these instances.