Boy Shot When Two Friends Play With Gun

PLACENTIA — Police arrested two 14-year-old El Dorado High School boys in connection with the accidental shooting of a friend, police said Wednesday. The 14-year-old victim, shot in the back Monday, suffered only a minor wound, said Corinne Loomis, a Placentia police spokeswoman.

He was taken to UCI Medical Center in Orange for treatment and released the same day, Loomis said. The names of all three boys were not released because they are juveniles.

Loomis said the boys, all ninth-graders, were playing in the home of one of the arrested teens about 3:50 p.m. While the victim played a video game, the other two joked around and played guitars, Loomis said.

At one point, however, one of the boys pulled out a .38 caliber revolver, one of two handguns he had stolen several weeks earlier from his father’s roommate, Loomis said.

The boy who stole the loaded weapon then handed it to his companion, who began “flipping it around and twirling it,” Loomis said.

The gun fired and the victim was hit in the back at close range. The bullet, however, only partially embedded itself in the victim’s back and fell out onto the floor, Loomis said.

“We don’t know if it was an old bullet or just a lucky shot, but it was only a minor wound,” Loomis said.

Police later learned that the boys had taken a second stolen gun, a Beretta 9-millimeter, and buried it in the back yard of the house before calling police. Investigators recovered that weapon and arrested the shooter for possession of a stolen weapon and the other boy for grand theft.

They were later released to their parents, Loomis said.

The incident is the latest in what some officials said is a frightening rise in the number of shootings involving children, who often have easy access to firearms.

The trend prompted Assemblyman Tom Umberg (D-Garden Grove) to sponsor legislation, signed into law over the weekend by Gov. Pete Wilson, that would make parents criminally responsible for shootings involving their children.

Times staff writer Bob Elston contributed to this story.