4-year-old boy shot in the foot in West Philadelphia

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- A four-year-old boy was shot in the foot on Thursday evening in West Philadelphia.

It happened around 5 p.m. in the bedroom of an apartment on the 900 block of 42nd Street.

The father took the child to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, and he has since been transferred to Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

The young boy is in stable condition.

Police say they do not yet know the circumstances surrounding the gunfire, but believe it may have been accidental.

They are reminding families to keep guns secured at home.

"It should be locked away. It should be unloaded. If you want to keep it loaded, you lock it," said Chief Inspector Scott Small. "There's also trigger locks that are available, so there's a lot of precautions you should take - especially when there's children in the house."

According to the Philadelphia Center for Gun Violence Reporting, four children under the age of 10 were shot in Philadelphia in 2024. Six children were shot in 2025, one of them fatally.