Four-Year-Old Boy Shoots Babysitter For Stepping On Foot

Police say an angry 4-year-old Ohio boy in Jackson, Ohio grabbed a gun from a closet and shot his baby sitter.

Nathan Beavers, 18, has been Sunday with wounds to his arm and side after the shotgun attack, while another teen was also injured.

Witnesses told police the child was angry because the babysitter accidentally stepped on his foot. Beavers was watching the child at a mobile home in Jackson with several other teenagers.

"He [the boy] didn't say much," Chief Deputy Jim Ephlin told the 'Columbus Dispatch' of the pint-sized suspect. "He said he was mad at Nathan. He said, 'I'm going to go get a gun.' The others thought he was kidding and was going to get a toy gun."

But the boy returned to the living room shot Beavers.

"It's lucky it was birdshot," Ephlin said of the shell the boy inserted into the shotgun.

The boy's father said he was shocked that his son knew how to load and fire the shotgun.

"It was an accident. He just thought it was another toy gun He didn't appreciate what it could do," the boy's father said. "The guns are gone out of our house. They're not going to be around with the kids anymore. It's not worth it."

Ephlin added the boy is in the custody of his parents "until we see what the prosecutor wants to do." The parents of the injured youth say they do not want any legal action taken against the boy.

 � Copyright 2004-2015 The News Vault. All rights reserved.