COLUMBUS, Ohio — A father was arrested and charged with child endangerment after his 3-year-old son reportedly found a loaded handgun in an unlocked drawer and shot himself Friday evening, according to Franklin County Municipal Court documents.
On Nov. 3 just before 11 p.m., officers with the Columbus Division of Police were called to Nationwide Children’s Hospital for a shooting victim. When officers arrived, they learned that a 3-year-old child was receiving treatment for a gunshot wound from a shooting in an unknown location.
The child had been taken to the hospital by his father, 21-year-old Abdalla Abdalla.
Court documents say that Abdalla told hospital staff upon arriving that his son had been stabbed. After further examination, hospital staff found a gunshot wound and a bullet in the child’s abdomen.
Abdalla allegedly told officers that he did not know the name of the street where the shooting had occurred or at what time it happened.
Officers were dispatched to Abdalla’s home in the Riverbend neighborhood in southwest Columbus where his family told police that the shooting occurred inside the home.
Abdalla later stated that he left his firearm, a Glock 19 handgun, in the top drawer of his bedside table that was unlocked, according to documents. He told police he had taken his son to his cousin’s house in an attempt to treat the wound and then drove him to the children’s hospital for medical attention.
The 3-year-old is expected to be released from the hospital soon, according to police.
Abdalla is currently in the Franklin County Jail where he is charged with endangering children, a third-degree felony.
Anyone with information on the incident is asked to call Det. Dana Houseberg of the Columbus Division of Police’s Domestic Violence Unit at 614-645-7225 or Central Ohio Crime Stoppers at 614-461-8477 (TIPS).