Young Boy Playing With Gun Wounds Brother

GARDEN GROVE — A 4-year-old boy was shot in the chest Thursday by his 5-year-old brother, who was playing with a loaded pistol he had found in the house, police said.

The wounded boy, Charles Dolan, was rushed to UCI Medical Center in Orange where he underwent emergency surgery and was listed in critical condition in the intensive-care unit, a hospital spokeswoman said.

The shooting occurred about 10:30 a.m. when a woman called 911 to report that the boy had a gaping gunshot wound in his chest, Officer Neil Toll said.

Paramedics rushed to the house in the 13300 block of Lori Lane. Neighbors, who requested that their names not be used, said the paramedics treated the wounded boy on the sidewalk outside the house before taking him to the hospital.

Toll said investigators had few details about the shooting. He said investigators will attempt to determine who owned the .357 magnum, which the 5-year-old apparently fired.

Outside the surgery room Thursday night, the boys’ father, Gary Dolan, paced the floor, awaiting word on the outcome of a second operation on his son. Dolan said he was working at a restaurant when police called to tell him that Charles had been shot.

“I still don’t know what happened at the house,” Gary Dolan said.

Neighbors said the family had moved into the neighborhood about five years ago.

A steady stream of sobbing relatives and friends visited the light blue house located on a cul-de-sac, but they declined comment.

The shooting appeared similar to an incident earlier this month when Marcos Antonio Lara, 13, of Santa Ana was fatally shot in the head by his 13-year-old friend.

The friend had invited Marcos to his Santa Ana house after school to look at his father’s recently acquired revolver. The friend aimed the gun at Marcos and fired one round to his head. The friend later told police that he did not know the gun was loaded.

In the past 20 months, officials said, seven other juveniles in Orange County have shot siblings or friends. Four of those victims died.

The most notorious case involved Richard Bourassa, 18, of Anaheim, who fatally shot 17-year-old Christian Wiedepuhl last year. Bourassa pleaded guilty to the shooting this week. Shootings of children by other children occur about 200 times a year in California, a fact that has sparked debate on whether to make parents legally answerable.

Assemblyman Tom Umberg (D-Garden Grove) has introduced a bill that would make it a misdemeanor or a felony for the adult owner of a firearm to leave the weapon within reach of a juvenile if doing so results in injury or death.