Gun in backpack wounds 10-year-old boy

SEATTLE, Aug. 19 (UPI) -- A 10-year-old boy wounded in the arm by a gunshot accidentally shot himself during an attempted robbery on a city bus, Seattle police said.

Police said the boy, being treated at Seattle's Harborview Medical Center, would probably face charges of robbery and a weapons violation when he is released from the hospital, The Seattle Times reported Thursday.

Police said a 17-year-old on a Metro Transit bus was surrounded by a group of juveniles including the 10-year-old who ordered him to empty his pockets.

The older youth said the 10-year-old unzipped a backpack and reached inside. The older boy, fearing the younger one was reaching for a gun, grabbed him and in the scuffle the gun fired from inside the bag, wounding the 10-year-old, police said.

Fearing the other boys would grab the gun, the 17-year-old seized the backpack and fled the bus.

Police later interviewed and released him. A search of the backpack yielded a .22-caliber pistol.

However, the 10-year-old's aunt told a different story, saying the 10-year-old and the older boy were cousins, and the younger boy was accidentally shot when he reached into his cousin's backpack, which contained the gun.