By AP News
Bonham – Fannin County authorities say an accidental shooting near Bonham has left a three-year-old dead and his nine-year-old brother wounded.
Authorities believe a .22 caliber rifle went off Sunday after a seven-year-old brother of the victims put it down on a table after the family had been in a barn hunting rats.
Fannin County Sheriff's investigator Wayne Walker said that the father believed he had unloaded the rifle, but he apparently missed a round.
Walker says a bullet struck the three-year-old boy in the head. A fragment of the bullet then ricocheted and lodged into the nine-year-old boy's arm.
Both children were transported to Northeast Medical Center in Bonham.
Walker says the three-year-old died en route to Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas.
The shootings remain under investistigation.