Seattle woman improves after being shot in the face by her child who found gun under bed

SEATTLE – A mother was shot in the face by her 4-year-old child, who found an unsecured gun and fired it, authorities said Saturday.

The mother’s condition had improved to satisfactory condition, and she was transported from Harborview Medical Center to another hospital, Susan Gregg, a spokeswoman for Harborview, said Sunday.

The mother, father and child were in a Skyway apartment complex in the 12000 block of 71st Avene South when the shooting happened around 5 p.m., said Sgt. Ryan Abbott with the King County Sheriff’s Office.

The child found the gun under the bed and unintentionally shot the 27-year-old mother, Abbott said.

“(The gun) wasn’t secured like it should have been; it was just laying under the bed, and it was loaded,” he said.

Authorities rushed the mother to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle with life-threatening injuries. She was joined there by the child’s father and the child.

No one else was in the apartment at the time of the shooting.

It wasn’t immediately clear who owned the gun. Detectives are investigating.

Washington state voters in November approved Initiative 1639, a measure that, among other things, holds gun owners criminally liable if an unsecured gun is accessed by someone not allowed to have a firearm, like a child, and the gun is discharged. Most provisions of I-1639, including those pertaining to unsecured firearms, take effect July 1.