BEREA, Ohio -- A Berea man, 23, faces criminal charges after he accidentally fired his rifle, sending a ricocheted bullet into his 3-year-old son’s legs outside their Nobottom Road home.

It happened at about 5:45 p.m. Aug. 3. The man said the mother of his other child, who was not the mother of the 3-year-old, had stopped by to pick up her child. The woman was accompanied by her boyfriend, who noticed a rifle on the property. The boyfriend asked the man for permission to look at the rifle.

The man removed the magazine from the rifle, although the chamber was loaded with one live round, and handed the rifle to the boyfriend. The safety was on. After the boyfriend handled the rifle, the man laid the rifle across a patio chair. When the 3-year-old kept walking near the rifle, the man placed the weapon on top of his vehicle.

After the woman and her boyfriend left, the man reinserted the magazine into the rifle. The man said the woman’s boyfriend must have disengaged the safety without his knowledge. With the barrel of the weapon pointed downward, the man accidentally pulled the trigger and fired one round.

The bullet ricocheted off the concrete patio and the home’s steel back door. Shrapnel entered the boy’s legs. The man picked up the child and yelled for help. He ran to a neighbor’s home, but no one answered. He then flagged down a driver, who called 911.

Neighbors, noticing something was happening, ran outside. They grabbed a washrag and applied pressure to wounds on the boy’s left leg. Paramedics arrived in about 11 minutes and took the boy to Southwest General Health Center in Middleburg Heights.

Hospital staff said the wounds were not life-threatening.

Police confiscated the rifle. They examined the boy’s left leg and believed the wounds were consistent with a ricochet. Lacerations on the shin and calf looked like grazing wounds. A laceration was also near the knee and a puncture wound was on the calf.

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