Tampa <\/a>Police Department has charged a man after a 3-year-old was shot in the arm by an unsecured firearm.<\/p>\nWhat we know<\/p>\n
According to TPD, on April 14 around 7:14 p.m. the child was in bed with his mother and her boyfriend, 30-year-old Steve Johnson. Detectives say Johnson left a gun unsecured in the bed after getting up to use the restroom.<\/p>\n
TPD said the child gained access to the firearm, which discharged and struck the 3-year-old in the forearm.<\/p>\n
The child\u2019s mother immediately rendered aid and contacted law enforcement. The child was transported to a nearby hospital with stable, non-life-threatening injuries.<\/p>\n
Deputies said through the investigation they learned Johnson was a convicted felon and was unlawfully in possession of a gun.<\/p>\n
What they’re saying<\/p>\n
“It is incredibly fortunate that this was not a fatal tragedy,”\u00a0said Chief Lee Bercaw.\u00a0“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.”<\/p>\n
Johnson was arrested and charged with the following:<\/p>\n
Felon in possession of a firearm<\/p>\n
Child neglect with great bodily harm<\/p>\n
What we don’t know<\/p>\n
It\u2019s unclear how Johnson got ahold of a firearm.<\/p>\n
What’s next<\/p>\n
This remains an active and ongoing investigation. The Tampa Police Department will provide updates when they become available.<\/p>\n
The Source<\/p>\n
This article was written using information from the Tampa Police Department.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wed, April 15, 2026 at 3:55 PM UTC Courtesy: Tampa Police Department The Brief A 3-year-old was shot…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":233664,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[15120,104246,135,137,136,3793],"class_list":{"0":"post-233663","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa","8":"tag-nearby-hospital","9":"tag-steve-johnson","10":"tag-tampa","11":"tag-tampa-headlines","12":"tag-tampa-news","13":"tag-tampa-police-department"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233663","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=233663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233663\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/233664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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