A 24-year-old woman accidentally shot and wounded her 5-year-old son while trying to shoot a puppy roaming in her Texas neighborhood, KTRK-TV reported Wednesday.
According to the report, Mia Vargas was arrested and charged with deadly conduct with a firearm after opening fire three times on the 6-month-old boxer puppy but instead wounding her son in the abdomen.
“I came out of my house because Bruno [the dog] was barking and barking,” said the dog’s owner. “I thought my brother was coming, so I open the door just a little bit and he comes running out.”
Vargas, her son and the boy’s father had been riding bicycles in the Houston neighborhood, and doorbell security video shows the pup run outside with its owner following immediately behind and trying to call the dog back into the house.
The confused dog instead roams into the street, and multiple shots ring out — followed by extended screaming by the boy’s parents.
“She could have handled it differently,” the dog’s owner said. “You know, she was there, her husband was there, I was there — nothing would have happened, nothing bad like that.”
The puppy was grazed by a bullet on its leg and Vargas’ son was hospitalized in stable condition with non-life-threatening injuries.
The Texas legislature recently approved a bill to allow open carry of firearms without a permit or required training, which Republican Gov. Greg Abbott is expected to sign into law.
