WORLD : Denied Coke, Boy Shoots Mother

A 6-year-old boy shot and seriously wounded his mother with a hunting rifle after she refused to let him drink a Coca-Cola, police said today.

The boy, who was at home with his mother in their apartment Tuesday, took the rifle from the closet in his parents’ bedroom and shot his mother in the abdomen, police said.

The boy told officers that he loaded the gun himself. After pulling the trigger, he ran downstairs to seek help from neighbors, they said.

The mother was taken to a hospital in Lille, a northern French city near the Belgian border, while the boy was put in temporary custody of a children’s home.