Maryland boy, 8, charged in shooting of girl, 7

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Maryland prosecutors have filed
charges against an 8-year-old boy who shot and wounded a
7-year-old girl after threatening to rob her at a suburban
day-care center, The Washington Post said on Wednesday.

The boy’s father, “a felon with a lengthy record,” was
arrested and charged with leaving a firearm within reach of an
unsupervised minor and other offenses after the Tuesday
shooting, the Post said.

The third-grader had sneaked his father’s .38-caliber
revolver into the facility in his backpack on Tuesday, the
paper said, quoting law-enforcement officials. He had been
suspended in the past for bringing a weapon to school.

Police had initially said the boy accidentally shot the
girl, a second-grade student, as a group of six children were
attending a before-school program at the For Kids We Care
day-care center in Germantown, Maryland, a Washington suburb.

But the Post said, “The sources said the boy threatened to
rob the girl and then fired the gun once, striking her in the
upper right arm.”

The girl was reported in stable condition in a Washington
hospital on Tuesday night, the paper said.

The boy “was charged as a juvenile with numerous counts
that police declined to outline,” it said. He was placed in the
custody of the Maryland Department of Juvenile Services.