An 11-year-old boy shot his younger brother in the head early yesterday with a gun they found outside, their father said. Ivion'tae Stevens, 10, was in critical condition last night at Nationwide Children's Hospital.

An 11-year-old boy shot his younger brother in the head early yesterday with a gun they found outside, their father said.

Ivion�tae Stevens, 10, was in critical condition last night at Nationwide Children�s Hospital.

He and his brother Ivi�yon Sams found the gun behind their house at 953 Studer Ave. on the South Side on Sunday, their father, Ivie Sams, said.

�I had them shoveling the snow,� Mr. Sams said. �They were out back, and they found a gun in the snow out in the alley by the trash.�

That night, when the boys were home alone, the gun went off in Ivi�yon�s hands just after 1 a.m., Mr. Sams said.

He spoke briefly by phone yesterday as he waited for news of his son in Nationwide. He was unavailable later to answer questions about when he learned about the gun or where it was in the house.

Last night, detective Randy VanVorhis said that Mr. Sams is a single father who said he had left briefly to get groceries. VanVorhis said the shooting appears to be accidental and that the case will be reviewed by a grand jury.

After the shooting, Ivi�yon ran outside and banged on his next-door neighbor�s door. When Ericka Buford answered, he told her his brother had been shot, she said.

Buford ran next door and saw the boy in the hallway.

�His brother is laying there in a pool of blood,� she said. �I told the dispatcher, �I don�t know if he�s alive. I think he�s dead because he�s not moving at all.��

Ivi�yon yelled at his brother, ��Please don�t die! Please don�t die!�� Buford said.

After Buford ran back outside, the 11-year-old moved his brother up against the wall, she said, and she could tell that Ivion�tae had been shot in the head.

At first, the older boy told her that his brother was shot by an intruder, she said.

�The story that I got was that someone came through the back door because it was unlocked, and (Ivion�tae) was coming down the stairs and ... got shot,� she said.

A Columbus police dispatcher�s report said that a 9 mm handgun was found hidden inside the house.

Ivion�tae is an Easthaven Elementary School fourth-grader. His father said that his son was expected to survive.

Ivi�yon, a fifth-grader at Livingston Elementary School, was shaken up, Mr. Sams said.

amanning@dispatch.com

@allymanning