GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — A 27-year-old Grand Rapids father is facing a safe storage violation after a toddler shot himself in the hand over the weekend.
The incident happened around 10 a.m. Saturday on the 200 block of Prospect Avenue Northeast, according to the Grand Rapids Police Department (GRPD).
Probable cause documents said that GRPD officers were dispatched to Corewell Hospital after the 2-year-old child arrived with a gunshot wound. The child is expected to make a full recovery.
The court documents said that the child's mother, Chloe Bolt, drove him to the hospital after the child shot himself in their home.
On Tuesday, Kent County Prosecutor Chris Becker said his office charged Nakobi Thomas, the child's father, with a safe storage violation premises under individual's control with a minor present causing injury.
That's a felony punishable by 5 years and/or $5,000.
Thomas told investigators on the day of the shooting that the firearm that the child shot himself with was his personal firearm that he used every day for concealed carry. Thomas said he did not know how the child got the gun and that his guns were normally locked up safely.
He told investigators that he had an AR-15 rifle and a Walther 9mm pistol that he usually safely stored in a lock box in the kitchen.
Thomas said that he was in the bathroom when he heard the gunshot. He told police that Bolt and the child went to the hospital while he stayed home and secured the weapon.
Bolt said that she and the child were getting ready to go to a soccer game at the time of the incident. Bolt said she had stepped into another room when she heard the gunshot.
Bolt said she drove the child to the hospital in Thomas' car and that she believed that Thomas locked up the gun and put it in that car.
The court documents revealed that police searched both the car and the home. They found the Walther 9mm pistol in the car as well as a fully loaded AR-15 in the kitchen of the home behind a violin case. The documents did not say if the weapons were safely stored.
Under Michigan's new safe storage law, the law requires gun owners to keep unattended weapons unloaded and locked in a locked box or container if it is reasonably known that a minor is likely to be present on the premises.
The prosecutor's office also said Thomas is also facing drug charges unrelated to the shooting.
