Child Shot In Head

PALM HARBOR, FL -- A 12-year-old boy is in the hospital right now, after authorities say he suffered a gunshot wound to the head.

They are calling it an accidental discharge right now.

The boy's step father, Joe Newman, who found him this morning said his step son is Jacob Larson in critical condition in the ICU at All Children's Hospital in St. Petersburg.

Newman tells us Jacob was breathing on his own, but doctors were still using a ventilator on him.

"Right now it's touch and go. The next 72 hours will be a definitive turning point. Between 24 to 72 hours is what doctors tell us," said Newman.

At about 11:30 this morning, Palm Harbor firefighters responded to Laughing Gull Lane. They say they found Jacob Larson unconscious and breathing.

Newman, called 911, saying his son has been shot in the head. Authorities say it is a small caliber handgun. Newman says there are no guns in the house and he is not sure where it came from.

"It came from school, that's the only place we can think of where it came from, one of his friends he traded it for something at school," Newman said.

When asked if they ever had a gun in the home, Newman said, "No, never had a gun in the house."

This afternoon, detectives did take a computer out of the house.

Newman says he wants other parents to pay attention to this story and talk with their children about gun safety.

He believes the shooting was an accident.

"I think he was playing around and it went off. That's what I think, I don't know," he said.

Next door neighbor Judi Byrne said she didn't hear anything this morning and didn't realize anything was wrong until she looked out the window and saw multiple ambulances and sheriff's cars on her street.

The 12-year-old is described as a nice boy, who was quiet and generally kept to himself. Byrne said she would see him with his step-father helping out in the yard or riding his bike in the neighborhood.

Byrne said the mother could have have been home when it happened, because she saw her pull up to the scene in her SUV.

"She was very upset, extremely upset. That's when I went inside the house, I had seen all I had wanted to see," said Byrne, "It's just awful, surely it was an accident."

Patty Simmons, another neighbor, described the family as close.

"The mom and dad are a real close couple," she said, " They were always loving, you would see them to together all of the time."

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