Daily Telegraph wrote:

A four-year-old boy grabbed a gun and shot his babysitter after the teenager accidentally stepped on the child's foot.

By Catherine Elsworth in Los Angeles
Last Updated: 8:29PM GMT 06 Jan 2009

Police said Nathan Beavers, 18, and several other teenagers were looking after a number of young children at a mobile home in Jackson, Ohio, when the shooting occurred.

The child, identified by local media as Ethan Crisp, was apparently angry after Mr Beavers trod on his foot, witnesses said, and stormed off to his bedroom saying he was going to get a gun. Those present assumed he was going to fetch a toy.

But the toddler reappeared clasping a shotgun taken from a bedroom cupboard and fired at Mr Beavers.

The 18-year-old was taken to hospital and treated for minor pellet wounds to his arms and side. Another teenager, the boy's uncle, was also injured in the attack, police said.

Authorities said they were stunned to be called to a shooting where the gunman was a four-year-old.

"He didn't say much," Chief Deputy Jim Ephlin told the Columbus Dispatch. "He said he was mad at Nathan. He said, 'I'm going to go get a gun.' The others thought he was kidding and was going to get a toy gun."

Ethan had taken a shell from a drawer in a back bedroom and loaded the 20-gauge single-shot shotgun, police said, before returning to the living room to open fire.

Jackson County Sheriff John Shashteen said authorities were investigating why the gun and ammunition were not locked up. The child would not be charged, he added, but the parents possibly could be.

William Crisp, the boy's father, said he was at work when he heard what his son had done.

"He knew it was wrong," he told local television news station WBNS News. "He'd seen guns loaded and shot before, but he's never seen the carnage it makes when it hits. He knows it now."

He added he was shocked his son knew how to load and fire the gun and said the weapons, normally used for hunting, had been removed from the house.

After the incident, the child apparently told police repeatedly he did not want to go to jail.

Mr Beavers was recovering in hospital.

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