Two-year-old shot in face with air gun pellet in Malaga playground

The Malaga Public Prosecutor's Office is investigating the injuries suffered by a two-year-old boy who was hit in the face by an air gun pellet when he was playing with his brother in a children's playground in the city.

The incident happened in Campanillas district in May, although it had not come to light until now. The little boy was hit by a pellet just below his eye.

Neither the boy nor his 10-year-old brother, who was with him in the playground, could see who fired the shot, or even from where, according to sources close to the case.

The child was taken to the Hospital Materno Infantil in the city for treatment, as the pellet was embedded in his face. According to the sources, the doctors had to wait until the swelling in the area had gone down before being able to remove it.

The Specialised and Violent Crime Unit (UDEV) of the National Police opened an investigation to try to identify who fired the shot, but the investigations were unsuccessful.

The report, however, was sent to an investigation court and also to the Prosecutor's Office for Minors. Judicial sources said that, according to witnesses, there are teenagers in the neighbourhood who hunt birds with pellet guns.

The Public Prosecutor's Office has expressed its concern about the presence of this type of weapon in the hands of adolescents and the fact that the little boy could have lost an eye.

It is compiling a list other cases that have happened in Malaga city in recent years, such as the case of a youth identified in 2019 in Huelin for shooting children at a summer camp held at the Eduardo Ocón school.

The teenager, who could not be charged (he was under 14 years old), used a compressed air shotgun with which he hit six children and two monitors from his home, although none of them were seriously injured.

In 2016, another youth, a 15-year-old teenager, was charged in Torremolinos for causing injuries to two women whom he allegedly shot from his home with an air rifle loaded with pellets. The victims, aged 17 and 65, had to be treated in hospital for their injuries.