LAKE STEVENS — A 3-year-old boy was seriously injured after being shot in the mouth Friday night.
Detectives with the county sheriff’s office Major Crimes Unit are investigating the shooting, which was reported around 10 p.m. Friday in the 600 Block of East Lake Shore Drive.
The child was in a bedroom playing with a 4-year-old neighbor, according to initial reports from the sheriff’s office. The boy’s father heard a loud noise from the room and forced open the locked door. The 3-year-old had a mouth injury, and his father thought he had hit the boy with the door when he forced it open.
At Providence Medical Center in Everett, doctors found that the injury in the boy’s mouth was a gunshot wound. The child was airlifted to Harborview Medical Center in serious condition.
No updates on the child’s condition were available Saturday afternoon.
The cause of the shooting remains under investigation. Current information suggests the 4-year-old neighbor may have accidentally shot the boy while playing, and both families are cooperating with the investigation, Lt. Susy Johnson said.
“Preliminarily, we are investigating it as an accidental shooting, but we can’t say for sure if the 4-year-old fired the gun,” she said.
No details were immediately available about the make, model or ownership of the gun. It is unclear where the weapon was located before the shooting.
With the cause of the shooting undetermined, no arrests were made and no one involved faces charges at this point.
Johnson expects to have more information Monday.
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