Toddler shot by brother fights for her life

A 2-year-old girl is fighting for her life in a hospital room after being shot by her older brother Thursday night, the second child to fall victim to unsecured guns in less than a week.

The girl was going into surgery about 8 p.m. Friday and her family was confident that she was going to live, said the family's roommate, 47-year-old Craig Lowe.

After talking briefly with the girl's father over the phone, Lowe said, "I didn't get the impression that she was unstable."

Lowe said the girl's family had been living in the home for about a year. The living situation was supposed to be temporary after their home burned down a year and a half ago.

"They've had some bad luck," he said.

The Metropolitan Police Department's Violent Crimes Unit, and Abuse and Neglect Unit are investigating the shooting, which happened about 8:30 p.m. Thursday at the girl's home at 1708 Verde Jardin Way, near Jones and Oakey boulevards.

Investigators believe the girl's 4-year-old brother found a loaded handgun in the house. While he was holding the weapon, it discharged, striking the girl in the torso.

The family was home at the time of the shooting, Morgan said. No charges have been filed.

Lowe, a Salt Lake City resident whose wife's company owns the home and who visits Las Vegas only a few times per year, said he didn't know details of the shooting.

When he arrived home Thursday night from shopping he saw the police cars and the street blocked off.

"My shotgun's locked inside my room," he said. "So when I heard it was a gun, my stomach sank. But my gun was locked up."

He said he had never noticed any guns lying around and didn't know the family owned a gun. He had known the father for some time, the two being contractors and having worked the same jobs.

"They're fantastic people," he said. "I wouldn't have them in my home if they weren't good people."

A next-door neighbor who didn't want to give his name said the family seemed nice and the children were "cute."

"It's truly a shame," he said. "If it's going to get worse, it's going to get worse for the little boy."

The incident was the second this week involving a child being injured or killed after gaining access to a firearm.

A 5-year-old autistic boy, Giovanni Kopystenski, died Monday after accidentally shooting himself in the head with his father's gun.

His father, Alexander Kopystenski, was in the car with his son when it happened and was arrested on a felony charge of child endangerment.

State law does not require guns to be stored in a particular manner around children. But under the state's child endangerment statute, a parent or guardian can be prosecuted if they allow situations "that a reasonable person would not grant," such as leaving a loaded, unsecured weapon around a child.

Last month the parents of a 10-year-old boy were charged with child neglect, reckless endangerment and child endangerment after their son shot a girl in the mouth with a pistol.

The two were playing "cops and robbers," according to authorities, and the boy loaded a cartridge into his parents' .38-caliber pistol and pulled the trigger.

North Las Vegas police found the family kept several guns in their home and that the boy had been caught playing with them before.

Guns have claimed the lives of 18 children 15 years of age and younger through homicides and accidents since the beginning of 2006, including Monday's incident, according to a Clark County spokeswoman.

Five of those incidents were accidents.

"It's a tragedy. It can be so prevented," Las Vegas police spokeswoman Barbara Morgan said. "You have a right to carry a weapon, but you need to be responsible with your firearms."

Police recommend that guns be stored in a locked area, secured with a trigger or slide cable lock and kept unloaded.

"You have a responsibility to keep your gun locked up," Morgan said. "If it's not locked up it should be completely unloaded."

Contact reporter Lawrence Mower at lmower@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0440. Contact reporter Mike Blasky at mblasky@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0283.