A handgun discharged in a Deltona home as a father said he was clearing it before a range trip, injuring his 4-year-old daughter and wife. The sheriff's office said evidence supported an accidental shooting; no charges had been filed as of Sunday.
Deputies reached the Boxelder Street home around 9:50 a.m. on Sept. 19. The girl was hit in the chest and arm, and her mother in the leg; both were conscious and alert. Deputies applied tourniquets to both and a chest seal to the child. She was airlifted to Orlando Health Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children, while her mother was taken to HCA Florida Lake Monroe Hospital.
The sheriff's office has not disclosed the handgun's condition, magazine status or precise handling sequence; it has not said which step, if any, went wrong. ATF guidance says to point the muzzle in a safe direction, keep the trigger finger outside the guard, remove the ammunition source and check the open chamber visually and physically twice. CDC data on 2022 unintentional firearm deaths found that, among cases with known circumstances, 8.1% occurred during cleaning and 3.6% during loading or unloading; 20% involved a mistaken belief the gun was unloaded. Those figures cover fatal shootings, not this case.
