Minnesota 15-Year-old Charged in Friends Accidental Shooting

Local news reports Prosecutors have charged a 15-year-old boy in an accidental shooting that wounded his friend in a St. Paul home this week. The Ramsey County attorney's office charged the boy Tuesday with reckless discharge of a firearm within a municipality and possession of a pistol/assault weapon by a person under 18 years old, said Dennis Gerhardstein, office spokesman. Police have said that the 16-year-old victim was shot in the abdomen with a small-caliber rifle, and that his injuries were apparently not life-threatening. It happened Monday night when the 15-year-old was playing with the gun in the basement of his home in the Como. The 15-year-old's mother was home at the time and drove the victim to the hospital, police have said. It's part of the nonchalance with which we treat these cases that the parents who own the gun and allowed the youngsters to play with it are not charged.