Father Shoots Girl in Head by Accident : Guns: 4-year-old is in stable condition after surgery. Man fled after firing the shot while trying to unload the weapon.

As she lay in bed beside her mother, a 4-year-old girl was accidentally shot in the head Saturday morning by her father who reportedly was unloading his gun, police said.

After he fired the shot, Bartolo Quintana, 30, fled his apartment on West McFadden Avenue, and police were still looking for him late Saturday, Santa Ana Police Sgt. Roger Scharf said.

Four-year-old Flerida Quintana underwent surgery at UCI Medical Center in Orange and was listed in stable condition, Scharf said.

The girl’s mother, Maria Quintana, 34, told police that her husband was pointing the gun in the direction of the bed as he unloaded it. He apparently had been drinking earlier, she said. The mother was not hurt.

According to Bartolo Quintana’s brother, Crisanto Munoz, Maria carried her bleeding daughter to his bedroom and asked him to call police.

“She was shocked,” Munoz, 26, said Friday through an interpreter. “She told me her daughter was dying and that I needed to take her to the hospital.”

His brother had already left the apartment by that time, Munoz said.

Sitting in the kitchen of the tiny two-bedroom apartment that his family shares with the Quintanas, Munoz expressed anxiety over the shooting and the whereabouts of his brother.

“We haven’t heard from him; he could be anywhere,” Munoz said. “It was an accident that was really bad. It should never have happened.”

According to Munoz, Quintana had borrowed the gun from someone else.

Police said Saturday they were looking for Quintana only for questioning and were investigating the incident as an accidental shooting.