Ankle injury caused by accidental rifle shooting
By BARRY HALVORSON bhalvorson@journal-spectator.com

A Boling area family avoided tragedy recently when an accidental shooting only resulted in one of their young sons being wounded in the ankle.

Wharton County Sheriff's Department Deputy Robin Rodriguez was called to Gulf Coast Medical Center in response to the shooting at 5:50 p.m. Saturday. The shooting took place in the 10000 block of FM 1301 in Boling.

The father of the victim, 36, said he was target shooting with his sons, ages 7 and 3, the report said. He said the boys were shooting with bb guns while he was shooting with a single-shot, .22-caliber long rifle. Both the father and the older boy told investigators the man placed his rifle on the ground and was helping the older boy when the rifle discharged.

They speculated the younger boy was running around and accidentally kicked the rifle butt, causing it to fire. Initially, they thought nothing happened until they realized the older boy was bleeding from the left ankle.