Louisville teenager shot in face with .22-caliber rifle

A Louisville teenager remained hospitalized Tuesday after he suffered a “significant” injury during a shooting in Barbour County.

Barbour County Sheriff’s Investigator Sgt. David Morris said a 13-year-old boy suffered a single gunshot wound during the incident, which happened Sunday morning. Morris said the boy had surgery twice as part of his treatment to the gunshot wound. He remained hospitalized at Children’s Hospital in Birmingham on Tuesday.

Morris said in a statement that the shooting happened while the 13-year-old boy and several friends were playing video games at the teenager’s grandmother’s home in Louisville. Apparently one of the teenager’s friends, an 11-year-old boy, pulled a .22-caliber rifle off the wall and started “playing with the weapon.” Morris said the gun went off and a bullet struck the 13-year-old boy in the left side of the face. He said the bullet traveled downward through the neck and into the right shoulder.

Sheriff Leroy Upshaw said in the statement that the 13-year-old boy apparently told the other boy to put the gun down because because it might be loaded, but the other boy called out the “gun’s not loaded” as it went off.

Morris said no charges have been filed in the ongoing investigation.

Upshaw stressed the importance of locking guns, and encouraged Barbour County residents to come by and pick up free gun locks at the county jail in Clayton.