{"id":232927,"date":"2026-04-15T16:37:33","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T16:37:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/232927\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T16:37:33","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T16:37:33","slug":"3-year-old-shot-in-arm-after-mothers-boyfriend-leaves-gun-in-bed-tampa-police-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/232927\/","title":{"rendered":"3-year-old shot in arm after mother’s boyfriend leaves gun in bed, Tampa police say"},"content":{"rendered":"

Steve Johnson, 30, was arrested after the 3-year-old gained access to the unsecured firearm, which discharged and struck him in the arm.<\/p>\n

TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 A 3-year-old was shot in the arm after he got access to a gun left in bed by his mother’s boyfriend, according to Tampa police.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It happened just before 7:15 p.m. Tuesday at a home on N 51st Street near E 30th Avenue.<\/a><\/p>\n

Investigators said the boy was in bed with his mother and her boyfriend, 30-year-old Steve Johnson, when Johnson got up to use the bathroom, leaving behind an unsecured gun.<\/p>\n

The 3-year-old got access to the gun, which discharged and struck him in the arm.<\/p>\n

The boy’s mother immediately rendered aid and called 911. He was transported to the hospital with stable, non-life-threatening injuries.<\/p>\n

Responding deputies learned Johnson was a convicted felon possessing the firearm illegally. The gun was recovered as evidence.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is incredibly fortunate that this was not a fatal tragedy,\u201d Chief Lee Bercaw said. “This incident highlights the double danger of a convicted felon unlawfully possessing a firearm and then failing to secure it. A gun should never be within reach of a child. There is no excuse for such negligence when the cost could easily have been a young life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnson was arrested and charged with felon in possession of a firearm, child neglect with great bodily harm, safe storage of firearms and possession of less than 20 grams of cannabis. He was transported to Orient Road Jail.<\/p>\n

The investigation is ongoing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Steve Johnson, 30, was arrested after the 3-year-old gained access to the unsecured firearm, which discharged and struck…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":232928,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,137,136],"class_list":["post-232927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=232927"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232927\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/232928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}