3-Year-Old Wounds Father, Woman With Single Gunshot

A 3-year-old boy got hold of a gun in an Albuquerque, New Mexico motel room, and fired a single bullet, striking both his father and a pregnant woman, police said today.

The bullet went through his father's hip and hit a pregnant woman in the shoulder, Simon Drobik of the Albuquerque Police Department said.

The woman is eight months pregnant with the man's child, Drobik said. The woman's 2-year-old daughter was also in the room, but neither child was injured, according to police.

Drobik, who was the first officer at the scene Saturday at America's Best Value Inn, said he found the woman sitting on the floor and the man lying on his stomach on the bed.

There was "tons of blood everywhere," Drobik said. "It was a bad scene."

Both were hospitalized, where the woman remained today for observation. The man has since been released.

The woman told police she "bought the gun Saturday before the incident," Drobik said.

The man is a convicted felon, according to police.

"He is going to be picked up by probation parole for being around a firearm," Drobik said. "Because he's convicted, he's not supposed to be around firearms at all, so he violated his probation."

Felony charges for criminal negligence are pending, according to police, but because neither the man nor woman had been charged as of Sunday afternoon. Their names have not been released.

"They're both facing felony negligence charges because they didn't secure the weapon around those kids," Drobik said, adding that both the man and the woman are in their mid-20s.

The children, who are now in the custody of the New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department, "didn't appear to realize what was going on," Drobik said. "They're so small, I don't think they even understood what happened."

Drobik said police will conduct interviews with the children.

"They're so small that it's going to be a tough one," he said.