A 17-year-old is hospitalized after he accidentally shot himself in the leg Monday night outside a Greenwood mall.
Police were called shortly after 6 p.m. Monday to the Greenwood Park Mall on a report that a person was shot. When police arrived, they found the teen on the ground in front of a SUV in the mall parking lot, along with two other juvenile witnesses standing nearby, according to a Greenwood Police Department report.
An officer administered first aid to the teen, an Indianapolis resident, who had shot himself in the leg. The teen said he had been carrying a handgun in his waistband, and when he adjusted the gun, it accidentally fired. The gun belonged to the teen’s mother, according to the report.
Police asked the witnesses where the gun was and they said the juvenile had ditched it. They also declined to help police locate the missing gun, the report says.
The witnesses told police they were walking outside the mall when they heard a loud pop and ran toward the teen’s vehicle, according to the report.
Police spoke with the teen’s mother via video chat, and she told police she let her son use her car, but had forgotten to remove her gun from it. The teen was taken to an Indianapolis hospital for treatment, the report says.
Officers looked inside the window of the SUV and saw a gun matching the description of the gun the teen had. Police also smelled marijuana in the car through an open window, which was later confirmed by a police K9, according to the report.
Police recovered two handguns from the vehicle, one of which the teen’s mother said was hers. The other was not claimed by the mother or the witnesses, the report says.
The teen’s mother arrived on scene and again told police she had forgotten to remove the gun from the car, according to the report.
One of the witnesses told police he had seen the juvenile carrying a gun and that it was for “protection,” the report says.
The first gun had blood on it and appeared to have been fired recently. The round was still inside a chamber due to a malfunction. Both guns were loaded, according to the report.
The teen’s condition is not available.
Police forwarded a probable cause affidavit to the Johnson County Prosecutor’s Office for a misdemeanor charge of carry a handgun without a license. The prosecutor’s office will decide what, if any, charges to file against the teen.
The shooting was the second accidental shooting in less than a week at the mall. During an unrelated incident on Saturday, a man was taken to the hospital after his gun accidentally discharged inside the mall. The man shot himself in the leg, and was the only person injured.
