A game of hide-and-seek between siblings ended in gunfire Saturday, when the 3-year-old stepson of a Stockton California Highway Patrol officer shot his brother with the police officer's .22 gauge caliber (Fox40 describes the gun as a .22 "gauge", but multiple commenters correct that to say "caliber", so we defer to their superior knowledge of firearms) rifle.
Fox40 reports that the 3-year-old and his 15-year-old brother were playing hide-and-seek in their Stockton home at around 8 p.m. Saturday when the younger child "got ahold of his stepdad’s gun in a closet."
The pre-schooler shot the teen in the foot, the Associated Press reports. He was taken to an area hospital and is expected to recover.
CBS5 reports that the CHP officer and his family had recently moved into the neighborhood.
“With the training he has had, I’m sure he’s had a little bit more knowledge of the situation," Jim Bertilacchi, who lives across the street from the officer, told Fox 40.
The CHP officer "may have been able to not have this happen, and obviously, possibly prevent it, and have seen things like this happen,” Bertilacchi said.
According to the AP, "Stockton police have handed the case over to the San Joaquin County District Attorney's Office to determine if charges will be filed" against the officer.
A spokesperson for the San Francisco office of the CHP said in October that while CHP policy requires officers who are on-duty to lock their service weapons away, those rules don't apply to private weapons.
“When you’re off-duty, it’s essentially your responsibility to secure it properly and in a reasonable manner,” CHP spokesperson Officer Vu Williams said in October, when a CHP officer's weapon was stolen from his car in SF.
"Based on our policy for when you’re on duty, it doesn’t really apply to when you’re off-duty," Williams said at the time. However, a spokesperson with Stockton CHP declined comment to SFist on this case, saying that they will be releasing a statement "later this week." The name of the officer has not been released as of Monday morning.
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