A 3-year-old boy who was shot Monday morning in an Aurora apartment is in critical condition, according to the police department.
The boy’s father left the home shortly after the shooting and was arrested on outstanding warrants in Colorado Springs, police spokesperson Matthew Longshore wrote in a Monday evening update. Longshore said the father is a person of interest, not a suspect and police want to talk to him about why he left.
Aurora police officers responded to the Kaiser Permanente medical center just before 10:30 a.m. Monday, when staff reported that a 3-year-old boy was being treated for a gunshot wound, police spokesperson Matthew Longshore said in an email to The Denver Post.
Longshore previously identified the child as a 4-year-old boy.
The child has since been transferred to Children’s Hospital Colorado, Longshore said in a .
The medical center is just around the corner, less than 1/10 of a mile away, from the family’s apartment in the 14000 block of East Centrepoint Drive.
Longshore said the boy’s mother heard the gunshot inside the apartment, found the child and took him to Kaiser Permanente with life-threatening injuries.
There is no update on the boy’s condition, according to Aurora police.
The boy was in a back room of the apartment with his father and other children, according to a news release from the police department.
Police said they believe someone else was playing with a gun inside the apartment when the boy was shot, but it’s not clear who pulled the trigger.
At least four people were in the apartment with the 3-year-old at the time of the shooting: the boy’s mother, father and two other children, according to Longshore.
The father left the home with one of the children after the shooting , and was contacted by the Colorado Springs Police Department.
He was arrested for previous outstanding warrants, and the child he left the scene with was found and is safe.
One of the children’s grandmothers was on scene when police arrived, but she arrived after the shooting to watch the noninjured children.
The grandmother was later taken to the hospital for a separate medical incident, and the third child went with her, Longshore said. She wasn’t shot and the child wasn’t injured.
Longshore said the Aurora Police Department’s crimes against children unit and major crimes unit are investigating the shooting.
Detectives are waiting for a search warrant to enter the apartment, he said.
It’s unclear if charges will be filed at this time. Longshore said it will depend on the circumstances leading up to the shooting, if anyone in the home was prohibited from owning firearms and if the gun was securely stored.
Detectives from the department’s Crimes Against Children Unit and Major Crime Unit are conducting the investigation.
This is a developing story and may be updated.
