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<\/p>\nTAMPA, Fla. (WFLA)\u2014 A Tampa man was arrested after a 3-year-old was injured by an unsecured gun, the Tampa Police Department announced.<\/p>\n
Officers responded to the 3600 block of N 51st Street on Tuesday after reports of a child with a gunshot wound to the arm.<\/p>\n
According to officers, initial reports revealed that at around 7:14 p.m., the child had been in bed with his mother and her boyfriend, Steve Johnson, 30, when he allegedly left a gun unsecured in the bed after getting up to use the restroom.<\/p>\n
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Credit: Tampa Police Department<\/p>\n
The boy then gained access to the gun, which discharged, and hit him in the forearm.<\/p>\n
The boy\u2019s mother immediately rendered aid and called 911. The boy was transported to a nearby hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is incredibly fortunate that this was not a fatal tragedy,\u201d\u00a0said Chief Lee Bercaw.\u00a0\u201cThis 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
During an investigation, detectives learned that Johnson was a convicted felon who was unlawfully in possession of a firearm.<\/p>\n
Johnson was arrested and charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm, child neglect with great bodily harm, safe storage of firearms, and possession of cannabis less than 20 grams.<\/p>\n
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