--- title: Mother's Gun Goes Off in Hospital, Injuring Toddler description: The bullet grazed the 2-year-old's face after her mom's gun went off in her purse. canonical: https://time.com/4292670/toddler-accidental-shooting-hospital-er/ author: Daniel White article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-04-13T18:58:42.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T16:42:51.690Z article:section: U.S. og:title: Mother's Gun Accidentally Goes Off in Hospital, Injuring Toddler og:description: The bullet grazed the 2-year-old's face after her mom's gun went off in her purse og:url: https://time.com/4292670/toddler-accidental-shooting-hospital-er/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Mother's Gun Accidentally Goes Off in Hospital, Injuring Toddler twitter:description: The bullet grazed the 2-year-old's face after her mom's gun went off in her purse twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Mother's Gun Accidentally Goes Off in Hospital, Injuring Toddler by [Daniel White](/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Apr 13, 2016 6:58 PM CUT by [Daniel White](/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Apr 13, 2016 6:58 PM CUT A Jackson, Miss. toddler was shot accidentally after [her mother’s gun went off in a hospital emergency room](http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2016/04/13/gun-in-purse-toddler/82981408/ "undefined"). The bullet grazed the 2-year-old girl’s face, leaving a superficial wound, according to _USA Today_. The gun, which was in the mother’s purse, went off after the mother dropped the purse while standing by a vending machine, according to a Merit Health Central hospital spokeswoman. The bullet ricocheted off the machine and hit the child. “This morning, an isolated incident involving the accidental discharge of a visitor’s weapon occurred on our campus,” hospitals officials said in a statement. “It was addressed quickly, preventing serious harm to the patient and risk to others in the hospital.” Weapons are not allowed at the hospital, and a police investigation is ongoing to determine if the mother will be charged with a crime. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4292670/toddler-accidental-shooting-hospital-er/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4292670/toddler-accidental-shooting-hospital-er/"},"headline":"Mother's Gun Accidentally Goes Off in Hospital, Injuring Toddler","datePublished":"2016-04-13T18:58:42.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T16:42:51.690Z","description":"The bullet grazed the 2-year-old's face after her mom's gun went off in her purse","url":"https://time.com/4292670/toddler-accidental-shooting-hospital-er/","keywords":["Crime","Mississippi","Guns"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Daniel White","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/daniel-white/"}],"articleSection":"U.S.","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/us/","name":"U.S."}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4292670/toddler-accidental-shooting-hospital-er/","name":"Mother's Gun Accidentally Goes Off in Hospital, Injuring Toddler"}}]}] ```