

A father appeared in court Friday on charges related to his 3-year-old child shooting a 17-month-old sibling three weeks ago, authorities said.



Justin Carper was charged Feb. 21 with failure to secure a firearm to protect a minor, said Cleveland County Sheriff's Office Capt. Joel Shores. Carper, who previously wrote a parenting column for The Star, made his first appearance in court on that charge after one of his children shot a sibling Feb. 6 at the family's home near Patterson Springs.



Carper left a 9 mm handgun in a secret compartment on top of his dresser, authorities previously told The Star. His 3-year-old found the gun and pulled the trigger, injuring his 17-month-old sister in her shoulder, the Star previously reported.



The 17-month-old was taken to the hospital but did not suffer life-threatening injuries, Carper told The Star on Feb. 6.



�He was given a criminal summons and not arrested,� Shores said of Carper's charge in the incident.



An individual receives a criminal summons when they are not arrested but receive an order to appear in court, Shores said.



�After meeting with the district attorney and seeing Carper has no criminal record, we did not have any reason to believe that he wouldn�t appear in court,� Shores said. �We would didn�t feel he was a danger to society and felt he obviously had been traumatized and learned a valuable lesson.�



Carper's next court date was set during his appearance Friday, Shores said. The N.C. court system had not reported that updated date as of Friday afternoon.



Reach Jessica Pickens at 704-669-3332 or jpickens@shelbystar.com.