3-year-old finds gun, shoots woman in back: Pennsylvania police

Police said a 33-year-old Pennsylvania woman was accidentally shot in the back by a 3-year-old who reached for a loaded and unlocked handgun.

According to a press release from the Wilson Police Department, on July 1, officers responded to a report of a shooting victim at a home in Wilson.

The victim, a 33-year-old woman, told police she was shot in the back by a 3-year-old who grabbed a gun from a table, authorities said.

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The woman was taken to a local hospital for emergency surgery and is expected to survive, police said. The 3-year-old was not injured.

Witnesses said Brian Siegfried, 41, of Easton, who was also in the home, was holding the gun, unlocked it, then put it on the table and walked away, police said.

According to authorities, Siegfried told police he was “tired of holding the gun.”

Police said four children under the age of five were near the weapon.

Authorities said Siegfried was not allowed to possess a firearm because he was subject to a protection from abuse order.

He was arrested on suspicion of aggravated assault, five counts of endangering another person and being prohibited from possessing a firearm, police said.

McClatchy News was unable to locate information on Siegfried’s attorney.

He was booked into the Northhampton County Jail and posted $25,000 bail.

Wilson is located about 70 miles north of Philadelphia.