Settlement Obtained for Child Mistakenly Shot at House Party

Our client was a 10 year old boy from Staten Island who was playing with a friend at a neighbor’s house party when he was he suffered a gunshot through the shoulder. At the time of the incident, he was coming from the basement up the steps. Unbeknownst to him, in the kitchen above, the host of the party took out his 9 mm gun to show one of the guest. As the guest was handling the gun, it discharged sending the bullet through the floor. The bullet entered front of our client’s shoulder and exited the rear of his arm. Initially, the guest fled the party, but later turned himself in to the police when he found out the police where looking for him. The incident was widely reported on in the media. Thankfully, the boy did not sustain any permanent injuries. The bullet passed through his arm without hitting any bones, nerves or significant blood vessels.

They boy’s parents were so upset after the incident that they hired our firm to ensure that the homeowner and shooter would take responsibility for what happened and ensure that a similar incident would not happen again. In a pre-trial mediation, we were able to negotiate a $400,000 settlement with the insurance company for the homeowner, the insurance company for the shooter and the shooter privately. In addition, the shooter agreed that he would never seek to obtain a gun license and would never handle a gun again.