Wilson County boy dies from air rifle shots
By From Staff And Wire Reports
Published in News on March 1, 2011 1:46 PM
STANTONSBURG -- A Wilson County boy was killed Friday night when his younger brother shot him with an air rifle.
According to published reports, Alejandro Mejia, 7, died at Wilson Medical Center after the incident in which his 4-year-old brother, Ivan, fired the weapon, accidentally striking him in the chest.
Officials with the Wilson County Sheriff's Office did not return telephone calls by presstime today. Sheriff Calvin Woodard and other spokesmen for the department were in a meeting, a secretary said.
Alejandro was a first-grade student at Stantonsburg Elementary School.
Wilson County school officials said counselors were at the school Monday and today to help students cope with the tragedy.
Woodard had told reporters earlier that the rifle was a Daisy Powerline 35 and that it was capable of firing either BB shot or pellets.
It was not immediately known which type of ammunition was in the gun at the time of the shooting.