Washington 4-year-old accidentally shoots 3-year-old neighbor

A 3-year-old boy is in serious condition in Washington after he was shot in the mouth by a 4-year-old neighbor who was playing with a gun, police said.

He was hurt after 10 p.m. Friday in Lake Stevens, roughly 40 miles north of Seattle, according to a news release from the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office.

The boy was playing with a neighbor in a locked bedroom when his father heard a loud noise, police said. The father forced the door open and found his son bleeding from the mouth.

The boy was first taken to Providence Medical Center in Everett, and now remains at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle in serious condition, according to the release.

The Sheriff’s Office said it was not yet clear who owned the weapon, whether it was left unsecured or what exactly led to the gunfire.

The incident marks the latest in a rash of accidental shootings involving children throughout the country in recent months. Last week, a 12-year-old boy accidentally shot his 9-year-old sister in the chest in Newark, N.J., after gaining access to an unsecured handgun.

Similar incidents left children hurt in Texas and Colorado over the summer, and a 9-year-old girl from New Jersey accidentally killed a firing range instructor in Arizona in August after she lost control of the weapon she was firing.

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