Boy shoots himself in the hand, woman charged with endangerment

A Minneapolis woman has been charged with leaving a loaded gun where a four-year-old boy was able to get it and then shot himself in the hand, Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman announced Friday.

Tiara Marie Wilburn, 34, was charged with one count of child endangerment by firearm access resulting in physical harm.

According to the criminal complaint, officers responded to a hospital on Thursday to a report of a four-year-old boy who had shot himself with a gun. Officers learned that the child had gained access to the gun at a home in the 1400 block of Newton Avenue North. He had significant damage to his left hand, requiring surgery.

Officers spoke with Wilburn who accompanied the boy and his father to the hospital. Wilburn is the girlfriend of the boy’s father. She told officers that the gun belonged to her and that she had brought it into the home and left it in her purse, which was on the floor in the bedroom closet. She said the boy must have gained access to the gun while she was preparing medicine for his father. She said she tended to the child after he was shot and placed the gun on the dining table in the house. She also admitted that she did not have any gun locks or lock boxes for the gun, according to the complaint.

Officers executed a search warrant on the home and found the gun on the dining table. Blood was also found on the wall of the home’s entryway. A hole consistent with a bullet was seen in the ceiling of the living room.

Wilburn is in custody and will make her first court appearance Monday.

Wilburn Criminal Complaint (PDF)