Boy Accidentally Shot by Grandmother

A 7-year-old boy is in critical, but stable condition after an early morning shooting at his Town ‘N Country area home.

Hillsborough County Sheriff’s deputies say grandmother Linda Maddox, 63, was watching her twin grandsons while their father was at work. Maddox had the two boys come into her room at 6505 Alta Monte Drive and placed a chair under the door handle for protection.

Around 1 a.m. Tuesday, Maddox heard the chair move against the wood floor, an email from the sheriff’s office said. Thinking it was an intruder, she picked up a loaded .22-caliber revolver she keeps in her room and fired toward the door, into the dark.

“Seconds after firing, she heard the screams of her grandson, Tyler,” wrote Cristal Bermudez Nunez in an email to media. “She had shot him in the upper body.”

Tyler Maddox was taken to St. Joseph’s Hospital, where he is in critical, but stable condition.

Deputies are not releasing further information at this time.