3-Year-Old Boy Wounded by Gunfire at Motel in Ventura

A 3-year-old boy was shot in the back Wednesday at a Ventura motel where he was staying with his mother, brother and another man, Ventura police said.

A police dispatcher said investigators had determined that the shooting was an accident. It was not known who fired the shot.

The victim, David Cook, was in critical condition after surgery late Wednesday in the intensive-care unit at Ventura County Medical Center, a nursing supervisor said. The boy’s 6-year-old brother, Keith, was also taken to the hospital but was released after unspecified treatment, the supervisor said.

The shooting occurred about 5 p.m. at the Silver Sands Motel and Apartments, 3215 E. Main St., according to the dispatcher.

Residents said they heard a single shot and then a woman’s scream before the mother of the injured boy emerged from Room 4 with the bleeding toddler in her arms.

“We heard a shot and just got one of those feelings like, oh my God!” said Aura Hennig, who was staying in a room across the parking lot of the motel. “We looked out the window and heard her scream. She was holding the baby. She was really panicked and upset.”

Hennig and her husband, Hans, ran over to help.

“The baby was crying all the way through it,” Aura Hennig said. “His whole back was blown off, more or less.”

Motel manager Max Wang said the mother had occupied the room since April, along with her sons and a man whom Wang described as a family friend.