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Grandson Injured When Man Cleaning Hunting Rifle Accidentally Fires Shot

By  Trevor Kapp and Tom Liddy | November 29, 2013 12:47pm 

 An infant was injured by raining debris after a man cleaning his hunting rifle accidentally fired the gun into the ceiling of a Lower East Side apartment, police said
Debris from hunting rifle discharge injures child
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LOWER EAST SIDE — A Manhattan man cleaning a hunting rifle accidently unleashed a shot into the ceiling of an apartment that was packed with family, sending debris tumbling onto his four-year old grandson, sources said.

The unidentified 50-year-old man was preparing to go hunting this weekend, was cleaning his gun just before 10:40 a.m. at a fifth-floor apartment in the Vladeck II Houses at 16 Jackson St., near Madison Street, according to the sources. He didn't realize the gun was loaded, sources said.

When the gun discharged, a round smashed into the concrete ceiling, sending a piece of debris falling onto a 4-year-old boy, who began to bleed, sources said.

The child was taken to New York Downtown Hospital with minor injuries.

"He went, 'What, what, what?' He picked up the phone and called 911 right away," his daughter said. "He told the police to take his guns."

His daughter said that she, her sister and her sister's son were all hit by debris. Sources said that seven people were in the apartment at the time.

"My nephew was a little closer," she said. "He was right under it."

She showed a tiny mark on her arm where falling concrete hit her.

She said her father, who goes deer hunting every weekend, is usually cautious when he handles his hunting rifles.

"He always puts safeties on them," she said. "He doesn't leave his guns out."

Her father, a bus driver for the last 15 years, had planned to go hunting upstate like he has for the last 12 years.

"My father is a good man. He's very responsible, respectful, a family man," she said.

It was not immediately clear if charges were going to be brought, but the gun was licensed, the sources said.

The New York City Housing Authority declined to comment.