BIRMINGHAM, Alabama - Police say a 3-year-old boy wounded by gunfire last week didn't shoot himself as initially believed.

Instead, a 24-year-old Birmingham is charged in connection with shooting, police announced this morning. Byron Dobbins is charged with first-degree assault, said police spokesman Lt. Sean Edwards.

The shooting happened Tuesday, Feb. 18. The boy, whose name hasn't been released, was shot just before 7 p.m. in an apartment in the 600 block of Brussels Circle. The round went through his side and his abdomen before it exited and struck his wrist.

Authorities said the boy shot himself after he found the gun in the couch. He was taken to Trinity Medical Center and then to Children's. Dobbins, police said, drove the boy and his mother to the hospital but had left by the time police arrived.

Dobbins is a cousin of the mother's boyfriend. He is being held without bond in the Jefferson County Jail.

The boy was one of two children shot that evening in Birmingham in unrelated incidents. A 6-year-old boy shot himself in the foot in his uncle's vehicle about 6 p.m. while his uncle was driving.

The 6-year-old boy and his uncle were at a library and the boy began to play with a handgun he found in the glove compartment. While the uncle was driving, the boy got into the back seat. The uncle heard a loud noise and thought it was a tire blowing, but the boy had shot himself.

He, too, was taken to Children's where Edwards said the boy was treated. "It went straight through his foot,'' Edwards said. "It was bandaged, and he was playing with Play-Doh and watching cartoons."

Police do not expect any charges to be filed in that case.