Man ‘tired of holding’ gun sets it down, then 3-year-old shoots woman, PA cops say

A 33-year-old Pennsylvania woman was accidentally shot in the back by a 3-year-old who picked up a loaded and cocked gun, police said.

Officers responded July 1 to a report of a gunshot victim at a home in Wilson, according to a news release from the Wilson Police Department.

The victim, a 33-year-old woman, told police she was shot in the back by a 3-year-old who grabbed a gun off a table, authorities said.

The woman was taken to a local hospital for emergency surgery and is expected to survive, police said. The 3-year-old was not injured.

Witnesses said 41-year-old Brian Siegfried, of Easton, who was also at the house, was handling a gun and cocked it before setting it down on a table and walking away, police said.

Siegfried told police “he was tired of holding the gun,” according to authorities.

Four toddlers under the age of five were in the vicinity of the gun, police said.

Authorities said Siegfried was not allowed to possess a firearm because he was the subject of a Protection from Abuse order.

He was arrested on charges of aggravated assault, five counts of recklessly endangering another person, and persons not to possess a firearm, police said.

McClatchy News was unable to locate attorney information for Siegfried.

He was booked at Northhampton County Prison on $25,000 bail.

Wilson is about a 70-mile drive north of Philadelphia.

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