Eight-Year-Old Boy Fights For Life After Accidentally Shooting Himself

An 8-year-old boy is in critical condition after accidentally shooting himself in the head at his Bronx home on Monday.

According to law enforcement officials, his father has been charged in connection with the tragic incident.

A report in The New York Post said the child, Noble Thomas Grant, has undergone emergency surgery at New York-Presbyterian Hospital.

The shooting happened at 5 Fordham Hill Oval, a University Heights gated community. The report said the child found the Smith & Wesson 9 millimeter weapon on a high shelf in his parents’ bedroom. Though the boy's mother was there at the building at the time of the shooting, she was not there at home.

Council Member Fernando Cabrera said the child's self-inflicted gunshot wound was accidental. "Today an eight-year-old child accidentally shot himself in the head with a gun he found in his family's apartment and was rushed to the hospital. It didn't penetrate the boy's skull. He is expected to survive," the statement said.

Though it was initially said that the gun wasn't legal, a revised statement from Cabrera said the latest information was that the gun was legally registered.

Though his father, 43-year-old Rajon Grant, was not at home during the incident, he has been charged with criminal possession of a weapon and endangering the welfare of a child. He has three prior arrests and owns a nightclub, sources said.

A neighbor, Eric King, said he acted immediately after the shots were fired.

“The two younger children came knocking on my door, yelling and screaming to come next door. I heard yelling and screaming when I ran into the apartment. To my understanding, he might have been playing with his father's gun. It might have gone off, and the gun may not have been safeguarded properly," he said.

King said emergency workers were able to get the boy breathing before he was taken to the hospital.

A similar incident happened in Georgia in December when a five-year-old girl was fatally shot when her friend accidentally pulled the trigger of a gun. Jada Willingham and her friend were playing with a loaded 9 mm Smith & Wesson when the bullet struck Jada in the face.