Lancaster Boy Shoots Himself Accidentally

A 4-year-old Lancaster boy accidentally shot himself in the shoulder Thursday with a loaded derringer that he found in a neighbor’s pickup truck, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department reported.

Albert Gualano IV was admitted to Antelope Valley Hospital Medical Center with a minor gunshot wound, Sgt. Jerry Wolf said.

The shooting occurred in a residential garage in the 1300 block of West Avenue J-3 about 3:30 p.m., Wolf said. Gualano had walked to the garage from his parents’ house in the same block and climbed into the truck, where he found a .38-caliber derringer on the floorboard, Wolf said.

The owner of the pickup, George Blackwell, told investigators that he heard a shot, then saw the wounded boy walking outside the back door of his apartment, Wolf said. Blackwell and the boy’s father, Albert Gualano III, who was standing outside his house when the shooting occurred, rushed the boy to the hospital, Wolf said.