11-year-old Cleveland boy shoots his 8-year-old brother, police say

Cleveland boy, 8, shot playing “gangster” with brother

CLEVELAND — As Joan Hicks watched television in her basement Friday morning, the two grandsons left in her care when her daughter went to prison found a gun and decided to play a game they called “Gangster.”

The pop of the .25-caliber handgun sent Hicks racing upstairs at 9:10 a.m. where she found the 8-year-old boy bleeding from a gunshot wound to his side. His 11-year-old brother had shot him, police said.

The boys found the gun in Hicks’ car but family members said it was not hers. It belonged to the boys’ aunt, they said, and it was unclear why it was in the car or how the boys found it.

Officers arrested the older boy for felonious assault. He was held at the Juvenile Detention Center. Hicks faces a charge of failing to secure a deadly weapon, police said. Cops seized two other .45-caliber handguns from the home. more