An 8-year-old male is recovering from an accidental, self-inflicted gunshot wound Friday night in the Mossy Grove community of Morgan County.

At approximately 7:17 p.m. on Friday, Morgan County Sheriff Wayne Potter was informed the child was wounded at a residence on Ray Cross Road.

Deputies, medics, and Sheriff Potter all responded to the scene.

District Attorney General Russell Johnson said the mother, was at home at the time, along with the gunshot victim and the victim’s sibling. The mother told law enforcement she and one child were in the living room when she heard a ‘pop’. She went into the kitchen and discovered her son had been shot with what turned out to be a 9 mm handgun. According to the statement of the mother and the statement of the father, who was at a family member’s home at the time, it is believed that the father placed or kept the loaded handgun in a holster on top of the refrigerator in the kitchen. The mother stated the victim evidently used a chair to climb up on the countertops in the kitchen. This time he apparently reached on top of the refrigerator to get the gun and somehow shot himself one time in the upper chest area.

Morgan County medics arrived and rendered immediate medical aid. The victim was flown to U.T. Medical Center. The boy was later transferred to Children’s Hospital and released yesterday. The gunshot went entirely through the child’s body without hitting vital organs but did fracture his shoulder.

Sheriff Potter stated the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services has been to the house several times regarding this boy. DCS was immediately notified by the Morgan County Sheriff after he arrived on the scene at the direction of District Attorney General Russell Johnson.

No further information was released on the incident.

This is the second shooting of a child with a loaded handgun being kept in the home in General Johnson’s four-county districts in the last week.

Last Sunday a four-year-old girl was shot and killed in Rockwood.