Nashville police: Toddler shot himself with gun left on bed

Stacey Barchenger
The Tennessean

Nashville police say an 18-month-old boy accidentally shot and wounded himself early Wednesday morning with a gun left on a bed.

police lights

An emergency dispatcher said the call came in at 1:54 a.m. from a Krystal fast food restaurant at 100 W Trinity Lane. Officer Terrance McBride found the 18-month-old there with a gunshot wound to his face. 

The child's father, 31-year-old Tommy Washington, told police the shooting occurred at the family's home on Summer Place, according to a police summary of the incident. The address is in James A. Cayce Homes, a public housing community in East Nashville.

East Precinct officer Terrance McBride

After dropping off his wife at work, Washington spent some time working on his car and went inside the home to find his four children — ages 11, 8, 18 months and 9 months — covered in hair removal lotion. 

As Washington gave the children baths, the toddler "got out of his sight and made it to the bedroom where firearms were laying on the bed," the police summary says. "He said he heard a shot and immediately ran to the room where he saw that his son had shot himself in the face."

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Washington said he was was driving to the hospital when his van began to overheat, the police summary says. He stopped at Krystal and help was called.

The boy was taken to a hospital with a non-life threatening injury, police said. 

Youth Services detectives are investigating. Police took two pistols from the home and also notified the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services.

Police later charged Washington with aggravated child neglect.

According to the Safe Tennessee Project, which tracks shootings and advocates safe firearm storage measures, nine children have been injured and four have died in unintentional shootings so far this year in Tennessee.

Three of the shootings that injured children happened in Nashville, according to the project. Last year, 10 children died and 22 others were injured in unintentional shootings. 

Related:For shooting of 5-year-old, father gets probation

Reach Stacey Barchenger at 615-726-8968 or sbarchenger@tennessean.com or on Twitter @sbarchenger.