SAN ANTONIO – San Antonio police have arrested man in connection with the accidental shooting of a toddler on the city's West Side Tuesday morning.
Lazurus Anthony Gutierrez, 24, has been taken into custody.
Police said Gutierrez is charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm and with tampering with evidence.
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Officials said they believe the four-year-old girl found the gun in the couch cushions of the home, and accidentally shot herself while Gutierrez was in the kitchen.
Gutierrez first gave a false statement about the shooting because he was afraid that he would get in trouble, police said.
Bond is set for each charge at $10,000.
(Original Story)
San Antonio police are questioning a man about a shooting that left a four-year-old girl critically wounded.
Officers responded to a call after 12:30 a.m. Tuesday and found the child wounded in the 500 of Park Grove Drive.
They said a man told them he and the girl were walking in the area when someone in a car opened fire on them.
The child was shot in the chest, the only person wounded, police said.
The girl was rushed to University Hospital, in critical condition. In the last update from police, she was still undergoing surgery.
Nearly five hours later, investigators were still at the scene, carefully going through a home on Park Grove Drive where they said the girl lives.
A detective told KSAT 12 News they found evidence inside the home that contradicts the story the man gave.
He said it appears the child definitely was not wounded in a drive-by shooting, but was shot in the living room of the home.
Police said the man ultimately confessed to detectives while being questioned that he had a gun hidden underneath the couch cushion and that the child found it while he was in the kitchen.
The man said the four-year-old grabbed the gun and while handling it accidentally shot herself. The man gave a false statement because he was afraid that he would get in trouble, police said.
