\u2018Welcome, no questions asked\u2019: Mayor Whitmire denies rumors of ICE officials patrolling Houston warming centers<\/a><\/p>\nCaptain Vicente Medina with the Harris County Precinct 4 Constable\u2019s Office said the deputy\u2019s firearm was holstered in his duty belt, which had been placed in an unconfirmed accessible location inside the home. <\/p>\n
Investigators say the child somehow gained access to the weapon and pulled the trigger. Only one shot was fired. <\/p>\n
\u201cAll we know is that it was holstered, and somehow, some way, the child got a hold of it,\u201d Medina said during a news briefing. \u201cHe\u2019d gotten home and put the duty belt someplace, and somehow the child grabbed the gun.\u201d<\/p>\n
Emergency medical personnel evaluated the deputy at the scene before he was transported to a hospital, where he was listed in stable condition with a non-life-threatening injury.<\/p>\n
Officials confirmed the child involved was the deputy\u2019s nephew. The deputy\u2019s mother\u2014the child\u2019s grandmother\u2014was also inside the home at the time. The child was not injured.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is his residence,\u201d Medina said, adding that investigators do not yet know whether the child lives in the home or was visiting.<\/p>\n
The Precinct 4 Constable\u2019s Office is leading the investigation. Medina said the findings will be presented to the Harris County District Attorney\u2019s Office, which will determine whether any charges are warranted.<\/p>\n
Depending on the circumstances, Medina emphasized the importance of firearm safety\u2014especially in homes with children.<\/p>\n
Calling the incident \u201ccompletely preventable,\u201d Medina encouraged gun owners to secure firearms at all times.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat you should be doing is putting your gun in a lock box, making sure it\u2019s in a locked room, especially if you have children in the residence,\u201d Medina said. \u201cIf you can add the added precaution of putting a gun lock on it, even better.\u201d<\/p>\n
Residents were asked to avoid the area while investigators processed the scene. No additional details have been released.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Harris County Sheriff\u2019s Office deputy was injured after being shot in the hand by his 3-year-old nephew…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":140767,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[10181,56,58,57,95,15776],"class_list":{"0":"post-140766","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston","8":"tag-hcso","9":"tag-houston","10":"tag-houston-headlines","11":"tag-houston-news","12":"tag-shooting","13":"tag-toddler"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140766"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140766\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/140767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}