Kids get everything today, I never got a gun to play with just some stupid sling shot.

Cops: 17-year-old shot himself with gun he wasn't supposed to have

by Tom Shortell/The Jersey Journal
Tuesday October 14, 2008, 5:02 PM

Police arrested a 17-year-old boy they believe shot himself in the leg with a gun he was not permitted to have.

Police responded yesterday at 6:45 p.m. to a call from an Oak Street house that a man had been shot and when they arrived, they found paramedics treating a 17-year-old claiming two men had shot him in his left leg while he was riding his bicycle, according to police reports.

The juvenile told police the men then ran east on Oak Street, and he ran back to his home, police said. A search failed to turn up either a blood trail or shell casings, police said.

Instead, police saw a trail of blood leading from the juvenile's room inside the housing complex to where paramedics were treating him, reports said.

Police found a small amount of blood and a loaded .22 caliber handgun behind the 17-year-old's headboard, police said. The juvenile had been taken to Jersey City Medical Center for treatment to his left thigh and shin and police arrested him there at 7:50 p.m. for unlawful possession of weapons, police said.

He is in now stable condition, hospital officials told police.