Police Identify Officer Whose Gun Wounded 3-Year-Old Boy

Charlotte Mecklenburg police officer Winsthon Mercedes was identified Monday evening as the stepfather of a 3-year-old boy who accidentally shot himself in the thumb.

The child found the officer's personal gun -- not his department-issued weapon -- and pulled the trigger inside the family's car on Friday night after Mercedes had entered a liquor store in Gastonia, police said. The boy's mother was in the car with him.

Mercedes was put on administrative leave and an internal investigation was started, according to CMPD.

The boy’s mother was sitting in the passenger seat, and the boy was in a car seat in the back when the gun went off, according to police.

The child climbed out of his car seat, police said, found the handgun and accidentally pulled the trigger.

“It was a police officer's gun,” a caller is heard saying in a 911 call. “She says her husband is a police officer and the gun was in the car and he touched it and it went off.”

The boy was taken to Carolinas Medical Center and is expected to recover. It’s unclear if doctors will be able to save the boy’s thumb.

The store was closed for about an hour on Friday while police interviewed witnesses and the boy’s parents.

Gastonia police said they will turn over their evidence to the district attorney, who will then decide whether anyone will be charged in the case.

“It's a law in the state of North Carolina that you are supposed to leave any firearm out of the reach of a child so that they can't do exactly what this child did,” Sgt. Gene Weaver said.

Dean White, the general manager of Shooters Express, said he talks to all of his customers about the importance of gun safety, especially around children.

“Once that bullet leaves the barrel, you can't take it back,” he said. “If you have to leave it in the car, it needs to be locked up, hopefully in a console, dash or trunk, if you have access to it.”