Pittsburgh Post-Gazette | By Sadie Gurman
A couple caring for a 9-year-old boy told him to lie to officers after his older sister accidentally shot him with a sawed-off shotgun in their McKees Rocks home late Monday, police said.
The boy underwent surgery on Tuesday at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC, where police said he remained in "very serious condition" from the shotgun blast, which tore through his thigh.
The boy's mother, Tawanda Wyley, called 911 about 11:30 p.m. Monday to report that her son had been shot by two men.
The boy, who was "conscious, alert and remarkably composed," told officers he was taking out the family's trash when he encountered the men arguing, and he was struck by gunfire as he started running home, said McKees Rocks police Chief Robert Cifrulak.
But the story began to fall apart when officers noticed fresh blood and wadding from a 12-gauge shotgun on the floor inside the apartment, suggesting the shooting happened there.
Police said the boy lived there with at least seven other young children, including his 13-year-old sister, who eventually told police she fired the gun while playing with it.
"The story was, for the most part, concocted by the parents," Chief Cifrulak said. "At some point, the 13-year-old girl said, 'I have to tell the truth.' "
She told detectives she was rummaging through a bedroom closet in search of shoelaces when she came upon a heavy garment bag, which she opened to find a sawed-off shotgun.
Her 9-year-old brother came into the bedroom with an infant whose diaper they were going to change and urged her not to play with the weapon, said Sgt. Scott Scherer of the Allegheny County police homicide unit, whose detectives are also investigating the case.
Instead, she pulled the trigger, accidentally striking her brother in the leg. Police would not release the boy's name.
Shawn Moore, 39, who was living in the home with Ms. Wyley, was charged with possessing a firearm in violation of his probation.
Court records show he was still serving terms of the probation after pleading guilty in June 2010 to child endangerment and simple assault of a victim younger than 12.
Mr. Moore was being held in the Allegheny County Jail.
He could face new counts of child endangerment and federal firearms charges, pending the outcome of the investigation, Sgt. Scherer said.
Police who searched the McKees Rocks apartment also found a 9 mm handgun in a backpack.
They discovered the fully loaded shotgun at another apartment two buildings away, with a spent shell in the chamber, Chief Cifrulak said.
It was unclear whether Ms. Wyley, 34, also would be charged.
Police said she may have told dispatchers the phony shooting story in an attempt to protect her daughter.
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