RIYADH, 19 September 2007 — A child playing with an unattended firearm on a farm in Al-Kharj shot a five-year-old in the head, killing him instantly, and shot another child in the leg, Riyadh police reported yesterday.
Police believe the shootings were accidental, a result of negligence on the part of an elderly man who left the loaded gun where a child could find it.
Police said the children and the elderly man were all related to each other but didn’t say how. The age of the child who pulled the trigger and the age of the child who was shot in the leg were also not reported. The report didn’t say in what condition the child who survived the shooting is in or if he is still in a hospital being treated.
Riyadh police spokesman Maj. Sami Al-Shuwairikh warned of the dire consequences of not securing firearms.
The spokesman stressed the importance of registering all firearms with local police authorities. “The police will not hesitate to charge anyone who is caught with an unlicensed firearm,” he said.
In another development, Riyadh police said that their campaign to combat beggary in the capital since the beginning of Ramadan has succeeded in netting at least 100 beggars, out of which 28 are Saudi nationals (16 of them women).
The Riyadh police said that they had established a special center to combat beggary equipped with the necessary manpower and facilities. All Saudi beggars caught are transferred to the Ministry of Social Affairs for further study of their conditions. Foreigners are usually processed for deportation, since they are usually residing in the Kingdom illegally.
The Riyadh police said that since 2005 when they had been assigned to deal with beggary in the capital, they have netted over 18,645 beggars in the capital, the majority of whom were foreigners (16,091).
