2 children wounded after toddler finds gun in dad’s backpack

PAGEDALE, Mo. – Authorities say two children were wounded in suburban St. Louis after a toddler found a pistol in his father’s backpack.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that the toddler shot himself in the arm and his sleeping 7-year-old brother in the head with one round Monday night in Pagedale. The toddler has been released from the hospital and the older boy is recovering from a skull fracture.

Police say the boys’ father usually takes a bus to work and carries a firearm for protection in his backpack. The father also keeps snacks in the backpack.

Police say that when the father got home from work, he put the backpack in his room and left. That’s when the toddler found the gun and fired it.

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Information from: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, http://www.stltoday.com