Police: Dad charged after 4-year-old shoots twin brother in Harrisburg home

A 4-year-old child shot his 4-year-old twin Sunday, prompting charges against the kids’ father after police said he left two guns unsecured inside their Harrisburg home.

The wounded boy required life-saving surgery after being shot in the left arm and chest, according to court records. His condition is life-threatening.

Police charged Phillip Woods, 49, with aggravated assault, child endangerment, possession of guns while prohibited and receiving stolen property. One of the two guns in the home was reported stolen, court records said.

Phillip Woods is charged with aggravated assault and related offenses connection to a shooting that left a 4-year-old child critically injured Sunday morning on the 300 block of S. 13th St. in Harrisburg, police say. https://t.co/83vuqTzn28

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The aggravated assault charge stems from allegations that Woods recklessly caused serious bodily injury to the child by allowing unsecured firearms in the home, resulting in the child sustaining a life-threatening injury. Under Pennsylvania law, prosecutors do not have to prove malice to prove a charge of aggravated assault if the victim is younger than 13.

Woods remained in jail Monday after not being able to post a $500,000 cash bond.

The 4-year-old twins were with a 5-year-old sibling in the family’s apartment in the 300 block of South 13th Street at the time of the 10:10 a.m. shooting. The 5-year-old told police that one twin shot the other, according to court records, and the 5-year-old erroneously believed the 4-year-old was “dead” immediately after the shooting.

Woods was at the home when police arrived and he showed them to his wounded son. Woods told police “he knew that the firearms had been stored inside of a storage bin unsecured inside of his residence,” according to court records.

The bin was “readily accessible” to Woods children, police wrote in the affidavit. Woods had custody of the children, officials said.

A prior drug conviction prohibited Woods from legally possessing firearms.

District Attorney Fran Chardo said the decision to file charges against Woods considered that he was not supposed to have guns in the home and the guns’ accessibility to young children.

The shooting marked the second time this year that a child shot a sibling in Dauphin County. In February, a 10-year-old accidentally shot and killed his 12-year-old brother in Swatara Township.

The parents in that case, who were not home at the time, were not charged because prosecutors said they legally possessed the gun, taught their boys about firearms safety and made efforts to hide and secure guns from their boys.